“I am afraid you are too tired.”

“No indeed I am not.  I should like it —­ if there is time.”

“Go in less time that way than the other.”

So they presently reached the lower ground.

“Do you want anything from the house?” said Winthrop as they came near it.

“Only the oars —­ If you will get those, I will untie the boat.”

“Then I’ll not get the oars.  I’ll get them on condition that you stand still here.”

So they went down together to the rocks, and Elizabeth put herself in the stern of the little boat and they pushed off.

To any people who could think of anything but each other, October offered enough to fill eyes, ears, and understanding; that is, if ears can be filled with silence, which perhaps is predicable.  Absolute silence on this occasion was wanting, as there was a good deal of talking; but for eyes and understanding, perhaps it may safely be said that those of the two people in the Merry-go-round took the benefit of everything they passed on their way; with a reduplication of pleasure which arose from the throwing and catching of that ball of conversation, in which, like the herb-stuffed ball of the Arabian physician of old, —­ lay perdu certain hidden virtues, of sympathy.  But Shahweetah’s low rocky shore never offered more beauty to any eyes, than to theirs that day, as they coasted slowly round it.  Colours, colours!  If October had been a dyer, he could not have shewn a greater variety of samples.

There were some locust trees in the open cedar-grown field by the river; trees that Mr. Landholm had planted long ago.  They were slow to turn, yet they were changing.  One soft feathery head was in yellowish green, another of more neutral colour; and blending with them were the tints of a few reddish soft-tinted alders below.  That group was not gay.  Further on were a thicket of dull coloured alders at the edge of some flags, and above them blazed a giant huckleberry bush in bright flame colour; close by that were the purple red tufts of some common sumachs —­ the one beautifully rich, the other beautifully striking.  A little way from them stood a tulip tree, its green changing with yellow.  Beyond came cedars, in groups, wreathed with bright tawny grape vines and splendid Virginia creepers, now in full glory.  Above their tops, on the higher ground, was a rich green belt of pines —­ above them, the changing trees of the forest again.

Here shewed an elm its straw-coloured head —­ there stood an ash in beautiful grey-purple; very stately.  The cornus family in rich crimson —­ others crimson purple; maples shewing yellow and flame-colour and red all at once; one beauty still in green was orange-tipped with rich orange.  The birches were a darker hue of the same colour; hickories bright as gold.

Then came the rocks, and rocky precipitous point of Shahweetah; and the echo of the row-locks from the wall.  Then the point was turned, and the little boat sought the bottom of the bay, nearing Mountain Spring all the while.  The water was glassy smooth; the boat went —­ too fast.