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PERFECT EXCELLENCE. 
Pluck them, and another year 
As many will be growing here. 
<3od has given a kindlier power 
To the favoured strawberry flower, 
When the months of spring are fled, 
Hither let us bend our walk; 
Lurking berries, ripe and red, 
Then will hang on every stalk, 
Each within its leafy bower ; 
And for that promise spare the flower. 
It is, however, most delightful to find the 
fruit of the strawberry, at all seasons of the 
year, amid the glaciers of the lofty Alps. 
When the sun-burnt traveller, oppressed with 
fatigue upon those rocks, which are as old 
as the world,— in the midst of those forests, 
half destroyed by avalanches, he vainly seeks 
a hut to rest his weary limbs, or a fountain 
to refresh himself. Unexpectedly he sees, 
emerging from the midst of the rocks, troops 
of young girls, who advance towards him with 
baskets of perfumed strawberries; they ap¬ 
pear on all the heights above, and in every 
dell below. It seems as though each rock 
and each tree were kept by one of these 
nymphs, as placed by Tasso at the gate of 
the enchanted gardens of Armida. As se¬ 
ducing, though less dangerous, the young 
Swiss peasants, in offering their charming 
baskets to the traveller, instead of retarding 
his progress, give him strength to pursue his 
