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But in Sicily we have so many evergreens and shrubs that flower all the winter. The oranges and lemons begin to get ripe soon after Christmas, and we have agaves and prickly pears everywhere. I can't imagine a landscape without any leaves!" "Wait till you see the snow! It's prime then!" "There's generally snow on Etna, but I haven't been up so high. It doesn't fall where we live." "Girl alive!
The orange trees were almost breaking down under their load of fruit, which scarcely paid for the gathering. The "nopal" or prickly pears have been rooted up, as well as most of the vines and figs. A few young nopals have been planted, and some preparation made for experiments in cochineal.
The laird lent me a felt hat and as the hour of noon drew nigh we set off for the parish kirk. I gathered afterwards that this happy result was partly due to the hope of seeing the laird's mysterious guest, and that several very prickly theological scruples were swallowed by divers of the other congregation. At all events the church was crowded and I had the chance I wanted.
But when the frost of the autumn nights comes, it cracks open the prickly ball and shows a shining brown nut inside; then, if we are careful, we may pull off the covering and take out the nut. Sometimes, indeed, there are two, three, or four nuts in one shell; I have found them so myself.
"That's a new verb made out of the name of Luther Burbank, the man who has raised such marvelous flowers in California and has turned the cactus into a food for cattle instead of a prickly nuisance." "I've heard of him," said Margaret. "'Burbanked' means 'changed into something superior, I suppose." "Something like that. Did you tell me you had a peony?"
Matters were rather different when it appeared that the pear was not waiting to drop when, on the contrary, the pear had pointedly removed itself from the hand of the plucker, and seemed, if one may vary the metaphor, to have turned into a prickly pear.
"Well, you haven't suffered any more than the average ranchman, just starting in," said Bud's father. "The rustlers always seem to pick on a newcomer." "Well, they'll find I'm a sort of prickly pear to pick on!" asserted Bud. "Dad, can't we clean out these rascals?" "Well, it's your ranch, Bud! You can do anything you like, within reason, but I wouldn't like to see you take any foolish risks."
So it came about that the Annex was established, and Cecilia Constable knelt down and thanked God most earnestly for His great mercies. Oh, how more than happy she would be once again! Now there was only one little black sheep to be put right. Poor, lonely, prickly Holly! She would see to it that the child entered Ardshiel, when her boys and the three strange boys left the Palace of the Kings.
The voice of Helen called him from his perch, and he descended quickly, leaping into a mass of brushwood growing at the foot of his tree. Helen stood a few yards from him, in admiration, before a large shrub. "Look, Mr. Hazel, what a singular production," said the girl, as she stooped to examine the plant. It bore a number of red flowers, each growing out of a fruit like a prickly pear.
Thus they partake of the nature of many different trees; and even their prickly top-knots, seen near at hand against the sky, have a certain palm-like air that impresses the imagination. But their individuality, although compounded of so many elements, is but the richer and the more original.
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