{"id":32557,"date":"2015-09-06T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=32557"},"modified":"2018-01-15T20:26:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T01:26:57","slug":"qotd-picking-wild-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/09\/06\/qotd-picking-wild-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Picking wild fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

One afternoon in the course of a climb we emerged upon a plateau, where we lingered perhaps too long, eating more fruit than may have been good for us; it was so plentiful around us, so varied. We commenced with a few late strawberries, and from those we passed to raspberries. Then Harris found a greengage-tree with some early fruit upon it, just perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about the best thing we have struck,\u201d said George; \u201cwe had better make the most of this.\u201d Which was good advice, on the face of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pity,\u201d said Harris, \u201cthat the pears are still so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He grieved about this for a while, but later on came across some remarkably fine yellow plums and these consoled him somewhat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose we are still a bit too far north for pineapples,\u201d said George. \u201cI feel I could just enjoy a fresh pineapple. This commonplace fruit palls upon one after a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much bush fruit and not enough tree, is the fault I find,\u201d said Harris. \u201cMyself, I should have liked a few more greengages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is a man coming up the hill,\u201d I observed, \u201cwho looks like a native. Maybe, he will know where we can find some more greengages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe walks well for an old chap,\u201d remarked Harris.<\/p>\n

He certainly was climbing the hill at a remarkable pace. Also, so far as we were able to judge at that distance, he appeared to be in a remarkably cheerful mood, singing and shouting at the top of his voice, gesticulating, and waving his arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a merry old soul it is,\u201d said Harris; \u201cit does one good to watch him. But why does he carry his stick over his shoulder? Why doesn\u2019t he use it to help him up the hill?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know, I don\u2019t think it is a stick,\u201d said George.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can it be, then?\u201d asked Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it looks to me,\u201d said George, \u201cmore like a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think we can have made a mistake?\u201d suggested Harris. \u201cYou don\u2019t think this can be anything in the nature of a private orchard?\u201d<\/p>\n

I said: \u201cDo you remember the sad thing that happened in the South of France some two years ago? A soldier picked some cherries as he passed a house, and the French peasant to whom the cherries belonged came out, and without a word of warning shot him dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut surely you are not allowed to shoot a man dead for picking fruit, even in France?\u201d said George.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course not,\u201d I answered. \u201cIt was quite illegal. The only excuse offered by his counsel was that he was of a highly excitable disposition, and especially keen about these particular cherries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI recollect something about the case,\u201d said Harris, \u201cnow you mention it. I believe the district in which it happened \u2014 the \u2018Commune\u2019, as I think it is called \u2014 had to pay heavy compensation to the relatives of the deceased soldier; which was only fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

George said: \u201cI am tired of this place. Besides, it\u2019s getting late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said: \u201cIf he goes at that rate he will fall and hurt himself. Besides, I don\u2019t believe he knows the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt lonesome up there all by myself, with nobody to speak to. Besides, not since I was a boy, I reflected, had I enjoyed a run down a really steep hill. I thought I would see if I could revive the sensation. It is a jerky exercise, but good, I should say, for the liver.<\/p>\n

Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men on the Bummel<\/em><\/a>, 1914.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One afternoon in the course of a climb we emerged upon a plateau, where we lingered perhaps too long, eating more fruit than may have been good for us; it was so plentiful around us, so varied. We commenced with a few late strawberries, and from those we passed to raspberries. Then Harris found a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1118,57],"tags":[948],"class_list":["post-32557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-germany","category-humour","tag-jkjerome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-8t7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32558,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557\/revisions\/32558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}