apUjSing ti^e Centl^ 



This Paradise of Ours 



WE had a dish of red raspberries found 

 growing wild on this sand, but as close 

 to the margin of the lake as they could 

 get without danger of drowning in a rainy year. This 

 brought up around the camp-fire the subject of wild 

 native fruits in America, and the bill of fare which 

 nature had filled before the white man came was 

 found to be varied and inviting. Of nuts, the largest 

 and most abundant in the region between the lakes 

 and the south line of Tennessee, was the black wal- 

 nut. This was the fruit of one of the noblest and 

 most valuable of American trees. I haVe seen them 

 towering up to a height of one hundred and fifty feet 

 — straight, massive, and majestic, and then reaching 

 their giant limbs out above the great oaks and maples. 

 Their value was not then known. They fell vic- 

 tims to the ignoble purpose of the zigzag fence. 

 The Britannica and other English books speak dis- 

 paragingly of the walnut itself as unfit to eat — which 

 shows that none of them had ever tasted a fresh 

 one. The walnut soon becomes rancid, if exposed 

 to dry warmth. The nut is at its best as soon as it 

 is dry, after removing the thick, bitter, protecting 

 hull. I have never known any one who did not 

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