How it resists the freezing! holding out almost as long as the black cheeksof the boys do. A frost that destroys the potatoes and other rootsonly makes the apple more crisp and vigorous; it peeps out from thechance November snows unscathed. When I see the fruit-vender on thestreet corner stamping his feet and beating his arms to keep themwarm, and his naked apples lying exposed to the blasts, I wonder ifthey do not ache too to clap their arms and enliven their circulation.But they can stand it nearly as long as the vender can.

Noble common fruit, best friend of man and most loved by him, followinghim like his dog or his cow, wherever he goes. His homestead is notplanted till you are planted, your roots intertwine with his; thrivingbest where he thrives best, loving the limestone and the frost,the plow and the pruning-knife, you are indeed suggestive of hardy,cheerful industry, and a healthy life in the open air. Temperate,chaste fruit! you mean neither luxury nor sloth, neither satiety norindolence, neither enervating heats nor the Frigid Zones. Uncloyingfruit, fruit whose best sauce is the open air, whose finest flavorsonly he whose taste is sharpened by brisk work or walking knows;winter fruit, when the fire of life burns brightest; fruit always alittle hyperborean, leaning towards the cold; bracing, sub-acid, activefruit. I think you must come from the north, you are so frank andhonest, so sturdy and appetizing. You are stocky and homely like thenorthern races. Your quality is Saxon. Surely the fiery and impetuoussouth is not akin to you. Not spices or olives or the sumptuous liquidfruits, but the grass, the snow, the grains, the coolness is akin toyou. I think if I could subsist on you or the like of you, I shouldnever have an intemperate or ignoble thought, never be feverish ordespondent. So far as I could absorb or transmute your quality Ishould be happy, continent, equitable, sweet-blooded, long-lived,and should shed warmth and contentment around.