The Canadian Horticulturist. 



PRESERVING TIME. 



AID Mr. Baldwin Apple 



To Mrs. Bartlett Pear, 

 " Your growing very plump, madam, 



And also very fair. 



" And there is Mrs. Clingstone Peach, 



So mellowed by the heat. 

 Upon my word, she really looks 



Quite good enough to eat. 



" And all the Misses Crabapple 



Have blushed so rosy red 

 That very soon the farmer's wife 



To pluck them will be led. 



" Just see the Isabellas ; 

 They're growing so apace 

 That they really are beginning 

 To get a purple face. 



" Our happy time is over, 



For Mrs. Green Gage Plum 

 Says she knows, unto her sorrow, 

 Preserving time has come." 



"Yes," said Mrs. Bartlett Pear, 

 " Our day is almost o'er, 

 And soon we shall be smothering 

 In syrup by the score " 



And before the month was ended 

 The fruits that looked so fair 



Had vanished from among the leaves 

 And the trees were stripped and bare. 



They were all of them in pickle, 

 Or in some dreadful scrape ; 

 " I'm cider," sighed the apple ; 

 "I'm jelly," cried the grape. 



They were all in jars and bottles. 



Upon the shelf arrayed ; 

 And in their midst poor Mrs. Quince 



Was turned to marmalade. 



