Comfort Me with Apples 209 



pie pie in that book and in my two years of reading 

 idealized it. On a glorious day last October I drove 

 to New Canaan, the town which was the prototype 

 of Queechy. Hungry as ever in childhood from 

 the clear autumnal air and the long drive from 

 Lenox, we asked for luncheon at what was reported 

 to be a village hostelry. The exact counterpart 

 of Miss Cynthia Gall responded rather sourly that 

 she wasn't "boarding or baiting" that year. Hum- 

 ble entreaties for provender of any kind elicited 

 from her for each of us a slice of cheese and a large 

 and truly noble section of Apple pie, the very pie 

 of Fleda's tale, which we ate with a bewildered sense 

 as of a previous existence. This was intensified as 

 we strolled to the brook under the Queechy Sugar 

 Maples, and gathered there the great-grandchildren 

 of Fleda's Watercresses, and heard the sound of 

 Hugh's sawmills. 



Six hundred years ago English gentlewomen and 

 goodwives were cooking Apples just as we cook them 

 now they even had Apple pie. A delightful rec- 

 ipe of the fourteenth century was for " Appeluns for 

 a Lorde, in opyntide." Opyntide was springtime ; 

 this was, therefore, a spring dish fit for a lord. 



Apple-moy and Apple-mos, Apple Tansy, and 

 Pommys-morle were delightful dishes and very rich 

 food as well. The word pomatum has now no asso- 

 ciation with pomum, but originally pomatum was 

 made partly of Apples. In an old " Dialog between 

 Soarness and Chirurgi," written by one Dr. Bulleyne 

 in the days of Queen Elizabeth, is found this ques- 

 tion and its answer : 



