23 October 1854 – 29 October 1854

On Assabet. The maples being bare, the great hornet nests are exposed. A beautiful, calm Indian-summer afternoon, the withered reeds on the brink reflected in the water.

P. M. — To Conantum. As warm as summer. Cannot wear a thick coat. Sit with windows open. I see considerable gossamer on the causeway and elsewhere. Is it the tree sparrows whose jingles I hear? As the weather grows cooler and the woods more silent, I attend to the cheerful notes of chickadees on their sunny sides. Apple trees are generally bare, as well as bass, ash, elm, maple.

Saturday. The woods begin to look bare, reflected in the water, and I look far in between the stems of the trees under the bank. Birches, which be- gan to change and fall so early, are still in many places yellow.

Sunday. Detected a large English cherry in Smith’s woods beyond Saw Mill Brook by the pe- culiar fresh orange-scarlet color of its leaves, now that almost all leaves are quite dull or withered. The same in gardens. ‘The gooseberry leaves in our garden and in fields are equally and peculiarly fresh scarlet.