74 THOREAU. 



fail not to bring home my pockets full. But per 

 chance, when I take one out of my desk and taste it 

 in my chamber I find it unexpectedly crude, sour 

 enough to set a squirrel s teeth on edge and make a 

 jay scream. 



These apples have hung in the wind and frost and 

 rain till they have absorbed the qualities of the weather 

 or season, and thus are highly seasoned, and they 

 pierce and sting and permeate us with their spirit. 

 They must be eaten in season, accordingly, that is, 

 out-of-doors. 



To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these 

 October fruits, it is necessary that you be breathing 

 the sharp October or November air. The out-door 

 air and exercise which the walker gets give a differ 

 ent tone to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the 

 sedentary would call harsh and crabbed. They must 

 be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow 

 with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fin 

 gers, the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the 

 few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming 

 around. What is sour in the house a bracing walk 

 makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labelled, 

 &quot; To be eaten in the wind.&quot; 



Of course no flavors are thrown away ; they are in 

 tended for the taste that is up to them. Some apples 

 have two distinct flavors, and perhaps one-half of 

 them must be eaten in the house, the other out 

 doors. One Peter Whitney wrote from Northborough 

 in 1782, for the Proceedings of the Boston Acad 

 emy, describing an apple-tree in that town &quot; produc 

 ing fruit of opposite qualities, part of the same apple 

 being frequently sour and the other sweet ; &quot; also some 

 all sour, and others all sweet, and this diversity on all 

 parts of the tree. 



