72 STRAWBERRIES. 



steps toward the milk-white meadows. The slightly 

 bitter odor of the daisies is very agreeable to the 

 smell, and affords a good background for the per- 

 fume of the fruit. The strawberry cannot cope with 

 the rank and deep-rooted clover, and seldom appears 

 in a field till the clover has had its day. But the 

 daisy with its slender stalk does not crowd or ob- 

 struct the plant, while its broad white flower is like a 

 light parasol that tempers and softens the too strong 

 sunlight. Indeed, daisies and strawberries are gen- 

 erally associated. Nature fills her dish with the ber- 

 ries, then covers them with the white and yellow of 

 milk and cream, thus suggesting a combination we 

 are quick to follow. Milk alone, after it loses its 

 animal heat, is a clod, and begets torpidity of the 

 brain ; the berries lighten it, give wings to it, and 

 one is fed as by the air he breathes or the water he 

 drinks. 



Then the delight of " picking " the wild berries ! 

 It is one of the fragrant memories of boyhood. In- 

 deed, for boy or man to go a-berrying in a certain 

 pastoral country I know of, where a passer-by along 

 the highway is often regaled by a breeze loaded with 

 a perfume of the o'er-ripe fruit, is to get nearer to 

 June than by almost any course I know of. Your 

 errand is so private and confidential ! You stoop 

 low. You part away the grass and the daisies, and 

 would lay bare the inmost secrets of the meadow. 

 Everything is yet tender and succulent ; the very air 

 is bright and new ; the warm breath of the meadow 



