"There are so many, Lady Mary, that I am afraid I shall weary you before
I have told you half of them."

"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