THISTLES 91 



flowers, with foggies here and there in addition. 

 And the gourmands sit down to feast under each 

 second lime tree. Not every thistle they come to 

 suits their purpose. That prickly small-headed 

 specimen in the ditch is of no use ; that pale- 

 flowered fellow among the oats still less so. In 

 that strip of wood to the right grows the melan- 

 choly thistle, tall, unbranched, prickless. But these 

 youngsters are not melancholy at least not to-day, 

 and do not turn aside to see. 



They pause before the great cotton thistle, 

 growing in front of the farm window, with much 

 the aspect of a small company of Liliputians 

 staring at Gulliver. But it is not to admire, 

 only to wonder what edible use it could be 

 turned to. 



Was it John Leech who once depicted some 

 London street boys, small by reason of age and 

 hard living, contemplating a six-foot sentinel in his 

 box ? And when the object of so much attention 

 was flattering himself that he had made an impres- 

 sion on their youthful minds, one said to the other, 

 " What a jolly jack-in-the-green he'd make ! " Had 

 these children given audible expression to their 

 thoughts, they would have said, " What jolly cheeses 

 it would make ! " 



