Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-09-23
NJ GEORGE WILLIAM crnris.

Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, null
berries, peaches, plums, pears, high and low
blackberries, thimbleberries, blueberries, and
huckleberries Gf the gentle reader prefers TO
call them or TO spell them whortcberries, let
him do SOY, and grapes-even grapes, the
most poetic of fruits-might all better be
spared than the honest, sound, ruddy apple.
They are the delight Of an hour,--the evanes-
cent decoration Of week, or q fortnight, or
of amonth. They play eXquisitely into each
others hands, and wreath the summer with
continuous variety and delicate gush. But
the apple is permanent pleasure. II is for
all the year. IL circles the months. You
may eat russets up 10 the day when the new
apples appear The apple is immortal As
it is the most ancient, so it is the most royal
Of fruits. The apple never dies.
The sturdy fruit, delicious in flavor and Of
an infinite adaptability, curiously character
istic Of the Yankee, who surrounds his farm
with its stiff and unshapely trees, and gener-
ally leaves them 10 wrestle with the weather
as they choose; but despite his neglect, ex-
poets they will pour rosy plenty into his
basket in the soft Indian-summer days. Is
his seeming neglect only the confidence Of
experience, after all ? II it be so, how can
he look into his orchard without blushing ?
What pathetic sermon in each of those un-
comfortable trees No wonder he hangs his
head as he passes by, and scolds his teams,
and screams to them that he may not hear
the still, small voice of the apple-treel
"Hulo |" it whispers to him, as the wind
rustles through the leaves, "you are pretty
hard-looking customer, as | am. We are
both planted on this poor hillside, and we
must both grow and bear as best we can.
You are fairly honest, they say, il you are as
rough and angular as | am. Yet the town
makes good roads for you, and educates your
children, and helps you help yourself. Good
for you and the town. Left to yourself
alone, you might moss over with ignorance
and dulness, and slide back into barbarism.
Luckily for you, you Yankee, you have sense
enough 10 get soraped and to keep so. You
have the caterpillars taken off you,-even if
you do sometimes cherish a maggot in your
brain or catch a bee in your bonnet Why
don't you do TO others as you would be done
toY Why should be moss-bound2 Why
should you leave me 10 choke with caterpil-
lars, and long in vain 10 have the band of
earth loosened around my feet Why not
wash me once in a while, and dry me with a
scraper? | should be all the better for it,
and so would you, Don't scream so noisily
to those oxen, but hear what | say, and do
what | ask"
II is the most generous and unselfish of
the fruits, considering how valuable it is.
The huckleberry and the blackberry are
honest souls, too The firm, hard, black
huckleberry, is very different from the blue.
berry, which is pretty, soft, bastard branch
of the family, is as modest and generous in
its sphere, perhaps, as the apple. But its
tt,ua 10 uhnrt. anil aItIa,,a,l, H.. ia,
of berries, 1t Is as capricious as o beauty.
The trailing arbutus, the earliest and one OF
the loveliest of wild-nowers, has the same
mingling of humility and caprice. II runs
under the old moist leaves Of last year,-the
most mouldy and old-fashioned society; but
il takes dainty little airs, and will not show
its face upon aristocratic and high-bred up
lands, even when they are in the immediate
neighborhood. So the huckleberry bestows
itself profusely upon the most barren pas
lures but when you go to find it few
fields of, and apparently upon the same kind
OF soil, the whim has seized IL, and il will
not be found.
But the noble apple will not be whimsical
All through the attitudes where it can live
at all, II gives itself impartially and pro-
fusely. And everywhere II is a symbol. In
the apple latitudes men are of mingled,
temperate flavor, neither too sharp nor too
sweet. They are Of firm consistency, and
sound TO the core They are wholesome,
hearty, sturdy and trusty race. In the grape
ATTITUDES, the wine countries, they have rare
and exquisite qualities but the first gush is
the best, and they are not sweet to the very
seed and in the seed. In the banana and
pomegranate lattudes there is little spirit,
no flavor, and an inspid, mushy consistency.
Grapes shrivel into raisins, which may be
packed in boxes like slaves in slaye-ship.
But apples, even in barrel, preserve their
individuality and elbowroom, and touch but
at few points and they nobly endure. If