DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, [Chap. 



many meals upon ears of corn in their green 

 state, I used to be greatly puzzled by that text 

 of Scripture (St. Matthew, chap, xii., ver. 1,) 

 which told me that, " at that time Jesus went 

 " on the Sabbath day through the corn : and his 

 " disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck 

 ^^ the ears of corn and to eat." 



15. I thought it, in the first place, rather 

 strange, that they should have gone through the 

 corn ; for we do not say through wheat or through 

 barley, as we do through a wood^ through an or- 

 chard, or through a coppice; but I thought it 

 still more strange that they should have eaten 

 earrs of wheat, of barley, or of rye. When I 

 came to walk or ride through the corn fields of 

 America, I understood how Jesus and his dis- 

 ciples might have gone through the corn in the 

 neighbourhood of Jerusalem; and when 1 came 

 to eat the ears of corn, and to find them so de- 

 lightful, all the mystery was explained ; and 

 when I observed how careful the American 

 farmers were to preserve the produce of their 

 corn fields, I was not at all surprised that the 

 Pharisees, who were, I presume, the Quakers of 

 Palestine, should have been so angry, and have 

 picked such a German quarrel with our Saviour 

 and his disciples on that memorable occasion. 



16. Though I was very young at that time, I 

 had been a great reader of the Bible; upon which 

 the parsons will remark, that it is a pity that I 



