Have you ever been out for a late autumn walk in the closing part of the afternoon, and suddenly looked up to realize that the leaves have practically all gone? You hadn't realized it. And you notice that the sun has set already, the day gone before you knew it — and with that a cold wind blows across the landscape. That's retirement.

Leacock frames retirement not as a single event but as a dawning realization—like noticing, too late, that the season has changed. The image of an autumn walk emphasizes gradual, almost imperceptible loss: the leaves are “practically all gone” before one has registered their falling. The early sunset and sudden cold wind suggest time’s acceleration and the chill of diminished purpose or vitality. By casting retirement as a moment of belated recognition, the quote captures a common psychological experience: life’s transitions can feel abrupt precisely because they have been happening quietly all along. The metaphor is gently comic but edged with melancholy, typical of Leacock’s humane satire.