"Nurse, I shall not be tired, for I like to hear about fruits and flowers very much; and my dear mamma likes you to tell me all you know about the plants, trees, birds, and beasts of Canada."
"Besides many sorts of strawberries, there are wild currants, both black and red, and many kinds of wild gooseberries," said Mrs. Frazer. "Some grow on wastes by the roadside, in dry soil, others in swamps; but most gooseberries are covered with thorns, which grow not only on the wood, but on the berries themselves."
"I would not eat those disagreeable, thorny gooseberries; they would prick my tongue," said the little girl.
"They cannot be eaten without first being scalded. The settlers' wives contrive to make good pies and preserves with them, by first scalding the fruit and then rubbing it between coarse linen cloths. I have heard these tarts called thornberry pies, which, I think, was a good name for them. When emigrants first come to Canada and clear the backwoods, they have little time to make nice fruit-gardens for themselves, and they are glad to gather the wild berries that grow in the woods and swamps to make tarts and preserves, so that they do not even despise the thorny gooseberries or the wild black currants. Some swamp gooseberries, however, are quite smooth, of a dark red colour, but small, and they are very nice when ripe. The blossoms of the wild currants are very beautiful, of a pale yellowish green, and hang down in long graceful branches, the fruit is harsh but makes wholesome preserves. But there are thorny currants as well as thorny gooseberries, these have long, weak, trailing branches, the berries are small, covered with stiff bristles, and of a pale red colour. They are not wholesome, I have seen people made very ill by eating them, I have heard even of their dying in consequence of having done so."
"I am sure, nurse, I will not eat those wild currants," said Lady Mary, "I am glad you have told me about their being poisonous."
"This sort is not often met with, my dear, and these berries, though they are not good for man, doubtless give nourishment to some of the wild creatures that seek their food from God, and we have enough dainties and to spare without them.
"The red raspberry is one of the most common and the most useful to us of the wild fruits. It grows in abundance all over the country—by the roadside, in the half opened woods, on upturned roots, or in old neglected clearings, there is no place so wild but it will grow, wherever its roots can find a crevice. With maple sugar, the farmers' wives never need lack a tart nor a dish of fruit and cream The poor Irish emigrants' children go out and gather pailsful, which they carry to the towns and villages to sell. The birds, too, live upon the fruit, and flying away with it to distant places, help to sow the seed. A great many small animals eat the ripe raspberry, for even the racoon and great black bear come in for their share.
"The black bears! O nurse! O Mrs. Frazer!" exclaimed Lady Mary, in great astonishment. "What! do bears eat raspberries?"
"Yes, indeed, my lady, they do. Bears are fond of all ripe fruits. The bear resembles the hog in all it's tastes very closely; both in their wild state will eat flesh, grain, fruit, and roots."
"There is a story about a beat and an Indian hunter, which will show how bears ear berries. It is from the Journal or Peter Jacobs, The Indian missionary:—