82 THOREAU. 



perience their first thawing. Those which a month 

 ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable to the 

 civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while 

 sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they 

 are extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to be 

 filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any bottled 

 cider that I know of, and with which I am better 

 acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in 

 this state, and your jaws are the cider-press. Others, 

 which have more substance, are a sweet and luscious 

 food, in my opinion of more worth than the pine 

 apples which are imported from the West Indies. 

 Those which lately even I tasted only to repent of it, 

 for I am semi-civilized, which the farmer will 

 ingly left on the tree, I am now glad to find have 

 the property of hanging on like the leaves of the 

 young oaks. It is a way to keep cider sweet without 

 boiling. Let the frost come to freeze them first, 

 solid as stones, and then the rain or a warm winter 

 day to thaw them, and they will seem to have bor 

 rowed a flavor from heaven through the medium of 

 the air in which they hang. Or perchance you find, 

 when you get home, that those which rattled in your 

 pocket have thawed, and the ice is turned to cider. 

 But after the third or fourth freezing and thawing 

 they will not be found so good. 



What are the imported half -ripe fruits of the torrid 

 South to this fruit matured by the cold of the frigid 

 North ? These are those crabbed apples with which 

 I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth face that 

 I might tempt him to eat. Now we both greedily 

 fill our pockets with them, bending to drink the 

 cup and save our lappets from the overflowing juice, 

 - and grow more social with their wine. Was there 



