Music of the Wild 



and finely sliaped for conventionalizing, and in 

 clustevs beneath them the papa^\s, that must be 

 seen to know how beautiful they are. Five and 

 six to a cluster they hang, M'hen young the skin a 

 cold blue-green ; with ripeness they take on a pale 

 yellow shading, and the "bloom" of the fruit be- 

 comes like frosted velvet. The pidj) is bright yel- 

 low and good to eat if you are fond of rich sweets. 

 The seeds are large, black, and resemble those of 

 tlie melon. If not gathered, the fruit hangs until 

 winter, turns to the purple wine color of ripe Con- 

 cord grapes, falls to the ground, and in the spring 

 the seeds sprout and produce new plants. 



Sometimes when taking pictures I get more 

 than I intend. In making this study of papaw 

 A Ray of leaves and fruit a ray of sunshine crept through 

 Sunshine j,j^ interstice of the forest and fell across mv sub- 

 ject. So long as the picture lasts the sunbeam 

 lives. A lens loves bright colors and sets them on 

 a photographic plate with jieculiar brilliancy. It 

 would be a fine thing if we could get a focus on 

 life's sunshine and reproduce it indelibly on our 

 hearts as stored warmth for gray days, just as the 

 lens caught this ray of light streaming across the 

 face of the papaw study. The truth is we do 

 not apjjreciate the sunshine mc have in our lives. 

 Eiven more, many of us never know that we are 

 having l)right ilays until we are plunged into the 

 depths of trouble and darkness; and when we grope 



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