Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs

PICTURE FIRST. POOR MAN'S PUDDING

"You see," said poet Blandmour, enthusiastically -- as some forty years ago we walked along the road in a soft, moist snowfall, toward the end of March -- "you see, my friend, that the blessed almoner, Nature, is in all things beneficent; and not only so, but considerate in her charities, as any discreet human philanthropist might be. This snow, now, which seems so unseasonable, is in fact just what a poor husbandman needs. Rightly is this soft March snow, falling just before seed-time, rightly it is called 'Poor Man's Manure. ' Distilling from kind heaven upon the soil, by a gentle penetration it nourishes every clod, ridge, and furrow. To the poor farmer it is as good as the rich farmer's farmyard enrichments. And the poor man has no trouble to spread it, while the rich man has to spread his."