The river smooth, though full, with the autumn sheen on it, as on the leaves. I see painted tortoises with their entire backs covered with perfectly fresh clean black scales, such as no rubbing nor varnishing can produce, contrasting advantageously with brown arid muddy ones. One little one floats past on a drifting pad which he partly sinks . . .

  Gathered four or five quarts of Viburnum nudum berries, now in their prime, attracted more by the beauty of the cynics than the flavor of the fruit. The berries, which are of various sizes and forms,—elliptical, oblong, or globular,—are in different stages of maturity on the same cynic, and so of different colors,—green or white, rose-colored, and dark purple or black,—i.e. three or four very distinct and marked colors, side by side. If gathered when rose-colored, they soon turn dark purple and are soft and edible, though before bitter. They add a new and variegated wildness to the swampy sprout-lands . . .