CHAPTER XV 



CHEERY VARIETIES 



"My faith is all a doubtful thing, 



Wove on a doubtful loom, — 

 Until there conies, each showery spring, 



A cherry tree in bloom." 



— David Morton. 



There is something about a cherry tree that 

 has a peculiar and universal human appeal, — 

 something that suggests the habitations of men, 

 and an established home life. Perhaps it is 

 because men and cherries have been so long 

 associated that this is true, for the cherry was 

 one of the very first fruits to be brought out 

 of its natural wild state and made to serve the 

 purposes of the human animal. Cherry-stones 

 are found in the ruins of the most ancient civili- 

 zation and even in the ruins which were left 

 by the peoples not recognized as being one 

 bit civil. The wild cherry of our woods wa3 

 used by the Indians to a limited extent, and if 

 we judge by the stones found in the monuments 

 of the mound builders even that ancient people 

 used this fruit. 



In Europe cherries were used before the time 

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