VII 



THE APPLE 



Lo ! sweetened with the summer light, 

 The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow, 

 Drops in silent autumn night. 



Tehnyson. 



"VrOT a little of the sunshine of our Northern 

 -'-^ winters is surely wrapped up in the apple. 

 How could we winter over without it ! How is life 

 sweetened by its mild acids ! A cellar well filled with 

 apples is more valuable than a chamber filled with 

 flax and wool. So much sound, ruddy life to draw 

 upon, to strike one's roots down into, as it were. 



Especially to those whose soil of life is inclined 

 to be a little clayey and heavy, is the apple a win- 

 ter necessity. It is the natural antidote of most of 

 the ills the flesh is heir to. Full of vegetable acids 

 and aromatics, qualities which act as refrigerants 

 and antiseptics, what an enemy it is to jaundice, 

 indigestion, torpidity of liver, etc. ! It is a gentle 

 spur and tonic to the whole biliary system. Then 

 I have read that it has been found by analysis to 

 contain more phosphorus than any other vegetable. 

 This makes it the proper food of the scholar and 

 the sedentary man; it feeds his brain and it stimu- 



