MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



But, lest your fetters prove too weak. 

 Ere I your silken bondage break, 

 Do you, O brambles, chain me too. 

 And, courteous briers, nail me through. 



GRAPES 



If the associations of the gooseberry are Brit- 

 ish, those of the vine are thoroughly Judaean, 

 There is not a fruit that we grow, which has 

 so venerable and so stately a history. Who 

 does not remember the old Biblical picture in 

 all the primers, of the stupendous cluster which 

 the spies brought away from the brook Esh- 

 col ? And I am afraid that many a youngster, 

 comparing it with the milder growth which 

 capped his dessert, has viewed it with a little 

 of the Bishop-Colenso scepticism. 



Upon a certain day I give to my boy,— who 

 has worked some mischief, — the smallest 

 bunch of the dish. He poises it in his hand 

 awhile, looking askance— doubtful if he will 

 fling it down in a pet, or enjoy even so little. 

 The latter feeling wins upon him, but is spiced 

 with a bit of satire, that relieves itself in this 

 way: 



*T think, papa (he is fresh from "Line upon 

 Line"), that the spies would n't put a staff 



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