THE APPLE. 



" Lo ! sweetened with the summer light, 

 The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow, 

 Drops in a silent autumn night." 



TV[ OT 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 winter ne- 

 cessity. It is the natural antidote of most of the ills 

 the flesh is heir to. Full of vegetable acids and aro- 

 matic qualities which act as refrigerants and antisep- 

 tics, what an enemy it is to jaundice, indigestion, tor- 

 pidity 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 stimulates his liver. Neither is this 



