THE APPLE 117 



alive and vascular as my own flesh ; capable of being 

 wounded, bleeding, wasting away, or almost repair- 

 ing damages ! 



How they resist the cold ! holding out almost as 

 long as the red cheeks of the boys do. A frost that 

 destroys the potatoes and other roots only makes 

 the apple more crisp and vigorous; they peep out 

 from the chance November snows unscathed. When 

 I see the fruit- vender on the street corner stamping 

 his feet and beating his hands to keep them warm, 

 and his naked apples lying exposed to the blasts, I 

 wonder if they do not ache, too, to clap their hands 

 and enliven their circulation. But they can stand 

 it nearly as long as the vender can. 



Noble common fruit, best friend of man and most 

 loved by him, following him, like his dog or his 

 cow, wherever he goes! His homestead is not 

 planted till you are planted, your roots intertwine 

 with his; thriving best where he thrives best, lov- 

 ing the limestone and the frost, the plow and the 

 pruning-knife : you are indeed suggestive of hardy, 

 cheerful industry, and a healthy life in the open air. 

 Temperate, chaste fruit! you mean neither luxury 

 nor sloth, neither satiety nor indolence, neither 

 enervating heats nor the frigid zones. Uncloying 

 fruit, — fruit whose best sauce is the open air, whose 

 finest flavors only he whose taste is sharpened by 

 brisk work or walking knows; winter fruit, when 

 the fire of life burns brightest ; fruit always a little 

 hyperborean, leaning toward the cold; bracing, sub- 

 acid, active fruit! I think you must come from the 



