The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-12-27
Ohestnuts.

Ul6SLQuLSs
On the boundless prairies the chest
nut only grows in the train-boy's
basket.
The chestnut is the home of the riot
ing worm. No self-respecting worm
will live in the ground if he can find a
chestnut. He enters it by hole which
cannot be perceived, and once in the
nut he riots in solitude and abundance
until some incautious man reads the
riot act to him. A chestnut without
worm is as great a rarity as bee with
out sting.
The chestnut burr is a sweet boon to
the chestnut. 1t is an Oriental imita-
ton of cactus cluster, and not very
bad imitation, either. 1t lacks the ma
tive penetration of the cactus, the sort
of ''oh whisper what thou feelest" sug-
gestiveness that turks in the coy caress
of the prickly pear; it does not work
in so deep nor stay in SO long, nor
rankle around like the bitter memories
of an over due note, as the clinging
cactus does, but it isn't half so bad.
The man who kneels down on a chest
nut burr, in the act of looking for a
chestnut, is satisfied with the burr. He
says what he has to say in hurried
tone of countenance, and does not ask
for any more.
Where all the chestnuts come from,
goodness only knows. l don't. They
don't grow on the trees. The prince
went out one day with the little ones at
the parsonage. He came home with
half peck of beautiful br1wn chest
nuts. l smiled at the child's enthusi-
| acm and caid IN his moi her.
Il will 60 out with him myself and
get couple of bushels"
l did 90 out with him. l took some
things to bring the nuts home in; to
wit, a grain sack, large double deck
er market basket and box; the aggre-
gate capacity of these vessels was two
and one-half bushels. Dr. McLain and
Louie accompanied us with a some
what larger equipment.
The proportion of the chestnut burrs
to chestnuts is as the leaves of the aid
ers to the trout in the brook. just
about. You walk over acres of hulls,
YOU turn them over, you look into them.
At last your heart bounds with JOY.
You find burr with chestnut in it.
You get all the needles on the burr in
to your two thumbs while you extract
!
ent worm looks out and denounces the
barbarity of eviction.
/ carried the chestnuts home that
night in my pocket The grain bag |
folded up and hid under my coat, l
threw the box away and the basket |
filled with hickory nuts. After it was
full a native drove past and looked at
| me kindly.
: Ia 4 holc IS clnll
barks down on the other road about n
mile" he said, with 4 peculiar empha-
sis on the shell barhs.
''Well, what's theseP'' L asked with
sinking heart.
Pig nuts" he replied, they're no
good: nobody ever gathers them
| lied, freely, saying that l kept a
pig and had gathered these nuts for
feed, and the native looked incredulous
and drove on.
What you emptyin' all dem nuts
over de fence for?" the Prince de-
manded.
| told him there were motives in the
human heart that sometimes shaped
our actions, too deep and intricate for
him to comprehend, and then the doc
tor and / gathered up the children and
trespassed across field to a forbidden
chestnut tree, escorted by a whole herd
of cattle and Mr.. Durham, who paw
ed the ground in another field and talk
ed bass at us through the rails. We
made great haul at this tree. The
venerable old monarch of the forest
was about 1000 years old and its branch
es had spread of about twenty acres.
1t was cloudy with burrs but we got
seven nuts and ten worms.
| know what the worms are for.
They are to keep the people from eat
ing the chestnuts. Were it not for the
worms many people would eat chest
nuts who cannot now be induced to
taste them, and a great amount of suf-
fering would thereby be entailed upon
the human race. OF all the awful
tireSomc, maddcning things in the
world to eat, chestnut is the linger-
ist. A man may start in on chestnut
say about the 10th of October. He can
chew it all that day, and from time to
time make desperate efforts TO swallow
fine fragments OF it. 1t will make him
cough all night, and he can resume the
process of mastication early in the
morning and keep it up an the next
day. 1t will last him that week, and
Sunday he cannot sing at church with
out blowing desiccated chestnut all
over the pew in front of him. Burning
ton HatOkeye.