NUTS. 265 



one from the other, and this at least to a tenth examina- 

 tion, for so long the echo will last." Not ambrosia itself 

 could more than merit such poetry of the palate as this, 

 and if the object which inspired can indeed realize it, 

 then surely the fabled land of the Lotos-eaters could have 

 been no other than a place of pine-apples. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



NUTS. . 



PLEASANT are the fresh fruits that deck our Christmas 

 dessert : the golden-juiced orange, the late lingering pear, 

 and sturdy apple with its glowing cheek. Pleasant, too, 

 are those of which Art has preserved the flavour, though 

 she has failed to retain the beauty the dried fig, the 

 raisin, or the date. But who would not forego them all, 

 rather than spare the standard but ever-welcome dish of 

 Nuts ? welcome at all seasons, but most of all at this. 

 The former are procured so easily, and disposed of so 

 quickly, that they afford but a momentary pleasure ; but 

 these cost time and trouble to obtain, must be wooed ere 

 they are won and earned ere they are eaten ; and there- 

 fore, when, in Homer's favourite phrase, " the rage of 

 hunger is appeased," and only something is wanted as a 

 pretext for protracting a little longer the rites of hospi- 

 tality, is their aid so gladly evoked to fill up the pauses 

 of conversation, to cover the silence of the dull, and en- 

 hance the merriment of the lively, as they crack their 

 jokes and their nuts together. Genial nuts ! whether it 

 be the husk-hid Filbert or bare brown Barcelona; the 

 eye-shaped Almond, enshrined in yellow walls of soft 

 porous sandstone, or the sterner Brazil in its granite 

 fortress ; the kingly Walnut in its coat of mail, or the 



