Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1898 — GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM. [ARTICLE]

GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM.

Some favor the af>ple, the peach, pear or plum— All luscious and quite appetizing—and some Prate long of the fruit of the family tree, But tbe wild-growing pawpaw Is what pleases me. It’s bilious and common—uncultured, ’tls true, Just a tramp of the road where the cockleburs grew;; But tbe gleam of its green-tinted skin Is a sight That sets my heart beating with old-time delight. For then, by the magic of fancy, I roam Across the dusk timber land near the old home. And over the rise with its treetops aglow With the scarlet and gold of a summer ago. I hear the sly cough of the squirrel that peers Like an elf from the crotch of the beeches, or jeers From a fancied seclusion along a high limb; But his plume of a tail makes a target of him. Again from a clump of dim bushes the whirr Of a covey of quail makes my sporting blood stir, And a high-holder flouts such a bright plumage that He seems bom for adorning some fine lady’s hat. And the chipmunks and pewees and sapsuckers, all Seem filled with tbe glad opulence of the fall, As they chatter and cheep in the path of my dream Like the sweet monotones ofa musical theme, Then down the long hill where the dead leaves and grass Whisper slyly the jokes of the wildwood, I pass Till I come to the slender, gray branches, the gold, And the long, languid leaves of the pawpaws of old. What joy for the palate, what a sight for the eyes Is the corpulent fruit in the grass where it lies All silvered with mist and as ripe as can be— Yes, the wild-growing pawpaw is what pleases me! —Chicago Record.