With the fall of the leaf we find the things we sought diligently in
the summer in vain. Within a foot of the path we trod almost daily, we
see, for the first time, where a pheasant brought off her brood; in
the fork of a slender birch-pole is that jay's nest for which we long
hunted--appearing now as a thick, deep wood-pigeon's nest; and where
the bracken has died down are the whitening bones of a rabbit which,
though his death-place was marked by the keeper's eyes, was not to be
found. A single leaf of June may hide a bird's secret from prying eyes.
By noting the things seen in the fall of the leaf we learn best how to
find summer's treasuries.
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