Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1898 — THE RUSTLING OF THE LEAVES. [ARTICLE]

THE RUSTLING OF THE LEAVES.

There is something sort of cosv when the leaves begin to rustle, As the boys go tramping through them in the hollows of the street Or hold down some laughing playmate—- . f' though he gives them quite a tussle— While they cover him completely with Dame Nature’s winding sheet • •• V I can taste the wholesome flavor of the frost in nuts and apples, When I hear the dead leaves whisper that their summer work Is done; And I feel the bracing presence of the ice king as he grapples With the steaming lakes and rivers, and enchains them every one. Then a picture of the hearth side rises bright and clear before me— Such a pleasant, homelike picture, of a biting winter night— And a longing for my -boyhood, warm and wistful, rushes o’er me, ' For the little farm house kitchen and the pine floor sanded white. When the autumn leaves were falling and the frosty night came early, How we loved to draw up closer to the wood fire’s cheerful blase, , Watch the flame eat out the maple, with its heart so veined and curly, And sit spellbound by the stories grandpa told of battle days. Yes, they all come back to cheer me—happy days that I remember— When I hear the leaves a-rustling as the school boys scuffle by. And I think there's something cosy In the gloom of bleak November, For the hearth fire of my boyhood paints a picture on the sky. —James Buckingham in Leslie’s Weekly.