Page:Summer on the lakes, in 1843.djvu/266

256 Not made with country sugar, for too strong

The flavors that to maple juice belong;

But foreign sugar, nicely mixed ‘to suit

The taste,’ spoils not the fragrance of the fruit.”

“'T is pretty good,” half-tasting, you reply,

“I scarce should know it from fresh blackberry.

But the best pleasure such a fruit can yield,

Is to be gathered in the open field;

If only as an article of food,

Cherry or crab-apple are quite as good;

And, for occasions of festivity,

West India sweetmeats you had better buy.”

Thus, such a dish of homely sweets as these

In neither way may chance the taste to please.

Yet try a little with the evening-bread;

Bring a good needle for the spool of thread;

Take fact with fiction, silver with the lead,

And, at the mint, you can get gold instead;

In fine, read me, even as you would be read.