Grattis Eugene!

Eugene Field

2 september 1850 - 4 november 1895

etsning av William Bicknell

Tidningsman, poet och humorist kanske mest känd för sina verser för barn, blir du nyfiken på hans skriverier, så har Gutenberg många av hans böcker.

THE BIBLIOMANIAC'S PRAYER

Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way

  That I may truths eternal seek;

I need protecting care to-day,—

  My purse is light, my flesh is weak.

So banish from my erring heart

  All baleful appetites and hints

Of Satan's fascinating art,

  Of first editions, and of prints.

Direct me in some godly walk

  Which leads away from bookish strife,

That I with pious deed and talk

  May extra-illustrate my life.

But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee

  To keep me in temptation's way,

I humbly ask that I may be

  Most notably beset to-day;

Let my temptation be a book,

  Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep,

Whereon when other men shall look,

  They'll wail to know I got it cheap.

Oh, let it such a volume be

  As in rare copperplates abounds,

Large paper, clean, and fair to see,

  Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes.

Apple pie and cheese

The best physicians

Is apple pie and cheese

D dealt it. E eat it. F fought for it.

"A Apple Pie and Other Nursery Tales"

Jag skulle tro att det vanligaste sättet att äta sin äppelpaj i dag, är med glass — men faktum är att det en gång i tiden nog var vanligare att äta den med ost, helst cheddarost. Med tanke på att man gärna åt äppelpaj till frukost, så är det inte konstigt — förresten så är det ju vanligt att äta frukt och ost till dessert.

På nätet hittar jag den här kommentaren:

“I can tell you that years ago (like about 30) in the state of Wisconsin it was illegal to serve apple pie without cheese! The law is probably not enforced anymore but I remember it.”

Jag har aldrig hört talas om den lagen, och kan inte svara för sanningshalten i påståendet.

I min kokbok “The Best of Shaker Cooking” kommer de med det här förslaget:

Grate 2/3 cup Cheddar cheese generously over pie and heat in 350°F. oven just long enough to make pie hot and melt cheese. This is good when using day-old pie.”

Andra recept föreslår att man har cirka 1 hg riven ost i pajdegen, förutom den ost man river över äpplena innan man lägger på deglocket.

Apple-Pie and Cheese

Full many a sinful notion

Conceived of foreign powers

Has come across the ocean

To harm this land of ours;

And heresies called fashions

Have modestly effaced,

And baleful morbid passions

Corrupt our native taste.

O tempora! O mores!

What profanations these

That seek to dim the glories

Of apple-pie and cheese!

I'm glad my education

Enables me to stand

Against the vile temptation

Held out on every hand;

Eschewing all the tittles

With vanity replete,

I'm loyal to the victuals

Our grandsires used to eat!

I'm glad I've got three willing boys

To hang around and tease

Their mother for the filling joys

Of apple-pie and cheese!

Your flavored creams and ices

And your dainty angel-food

Are mighty fine devices

To regale the dainty dude;

Your terrapin and oysters,

With wine to wash 'em down,

Are just the thing for roisters

When painting of the town;

No flippant, sugared notion

Shall my appetite appease,

Or bate my soul's devotion

To apple-pie and cheese!

The pie my Julia makes me

(God bless her Yankee ways!)

On memory's pinions takes me

To dear Green Mountain days;

And seems like I see Mother

Lean on the window-sill,

A-handin' me and brother

What she knows'll keep us still;

And these feelings are so grateful,

Says I, "Julia, if you please,

I'll take another plateful

Of that apple-pie and cheese!"

And cheese! No alien it, sir,

That's brought across the sea, —

No Dutch antique, nor Switzer,

Nor glutinous de Brie;

There's nothing I abhor so

As mawmets of this ilk —

Give me the harmless morceau

That's made of true-blue milk!

No matter what conditions

Dyspeptic come to feaze,

The best of all physicians

Is apple-pie and cheese!

Though ribalds may decry 'em,

For these twin boons we stand,

Partaking thrice per diem

Of their fulness out of hand;

No enervating fashion

Shall cheat us of our right

To gratify our passion

With a mouthful at a bite!

We'll cut it square or bias,

Or any way we please,

And faith shall justify us

When we carve our pie and cheese!

De gustibus, 't is stated,

Non disputandum est.

Which meaneth, when translated,

That all is for the best.

So let the foolish choose 'em

The vapid sweets of sin,

I will not disabuse 'em

Of the heresy they're in;

But I, when I undress me

Each night upon my knees

Will ask the Lord to bless me

With apple-pie and cheese!

Eugene Field

Musmys

THE MOUSE AND THE MOONBEAM
0
Whilst you were sleeping, little Dear-my-Soul, strange things happened; but that I saw and heard them, I should never have believed them. The clock stood, of course, in the corner, a moonbeam floated idly on the floor, and a little mauve mouse came from the hole in the chimney corner and frisked and scampered in the light of the moonbeam upon the floor. The little mauve mouse was particularly merry; sometimes she danced upon two legs and sometimes upon four legs, but always very daintily and always very merrily.
0
"Ah, me!" sighed the old clock, "how different mice are nowadays from the mice we used to have in the good old times! Now there was your grandma, Mistress Velvetpaw, and there was your grandpa, Master Sniffwhisker,—how grave and dignified they were! Many a night have I seen them dancing upon the carpet below me, but always the stately minuet and never that crazy frisking which you are executing now, to my surprise—yes, and to my horror, too."
0
"But why shouldn't I be merry?" asked the little mauve mouse. "To-morrow is Christmas, and this is Christmas eve."
0
"So it is," said the old clock. "I had really forgotten all about it. But tell me, what is Christmas to you, little Miss Mauve Mouse?"
0
"A great deal to me!" cried the little mauve mouse. "I have been very good a very long time: I have not used any bad words, nor have I gnawed any holes, nor have I stolen any canary seed, nor have I worried my mother by running behind the flour-barrel where that horrid trap is set. In fact, I have been so good that I'm very sure Santa Claus will bring me something very pretty."

Ur "Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse",1912,

av Eugene Field med illustrationer av Florence Storer

Du kan läsa hela berättelsen här.