56 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



and easily bruised, which makes it a poor market 

 berry, but, with its high flavor and productiveness, 

 an admirable one for home use. It seems to be as 

 easily grown as the Wilson, while it is much more 

 palatable. The great trouble with the Wilson, as 

 everybody knows, is its rank acidity. When it 

 first comes, it is difficult to eat it without making 

 faces. It is crabbed and acrimonious. Like some 

 persons, the Wilson will not ripen and sweeten till 

 its old age. Its largest and finest crop, if allowed 

 to remain on the vines, will soften and fail unregen- 

 erated, or with all its sins upon it. But wait till 

 toward the end of the season, after the plant gets 

 over its hurry and takes time to ripen its fruit. The 

 berry will then face the sun for days, and, if the 

 weather is not too wet, instead of softening will 

 turn dark and grow rich. Out of its crabbedness 

 and spitefulness come the finest, choicest flavors. 

 It is an astonishing berry. It lays hold of the taste 

 in a way that the aristocratic berries, like the Jo- 

 cunda or Triumph, cannot approximate to. Its qual- 

 ity is as penetrating as that of ants and wasps, but 

 sweet. It is, indeed, a wild bee turned into a berry, 

 with the sting mollified and the honey disguised. 

 A quart of these rare-ripes I venture to say contains 

 more of the peculiar virtue and excellence of the 

 strawberry kind than can be had in twice the same 

 quantity of any other cultivated variety. Take these 

 berries in a bowl of rich milk with some bread, — 

 ah, what a dish ! — too good to set before a king ! I 

 suspect this was the food of Adam in Paradise, only 



