CHAPTER II— FEBRUARY 



THE PLANNING AND THE CATALOGUES 



THIS fine February day — a day of white sky 

 over the white snow, of a clear cold that 

 has just a hint of the growing strength of 

 the sun back of it— I found "Old WiUiam" deftly 

 working fruit off the upper branches of that per- 

 simmon tree I had not noticed at all the first 

 winter of acquaintance with Breeze Hill. The old 

 man had spHced together two long clothes-props, 

 and with the uplifted end he could tickle off the 

 wrinkled persimmons that were by now surely free 

 from any astringency. The sight tempted me, and 

 my younger legs were good for the simple climb 

 that took me up where I could pick, eat and truly 

 enjoy a fruit which to most Americans who live 

 in the northern states is merely a tradition of 

 their boyhood. 



I have been wondering why the hybridizers 

 have not worked some of the size and mildness of 

 the big Japanese "kaki" into this delicious morsel 

 of the north, and the inquiry born of that wonder 

 is answered to the purport that the much larger 



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