While putting together two quince articles a few days ago (see Justin and Justina dialogue and eighteenth century British quince recipes), I came across an illustration of a woman dressed as a quince from the second edition of Mother Earth’s Children (1914) by Elizabeth Gordon (1866-1922), a children’s poetry book on “The Frolics of the Fruits and Vegetables.” Although I thought about using Mrs. Quince in one of my articles, I decided that the illustration, along with the poem, deserved its own article. The illustrations in the book were all done by M.T. Ross (1881-1937).

Unfortunately, the illustration of Mrs. Quince in the Project Gutenberg edition of Mother Earth’s Children was of low quality. Fortunately, I have Upscayl, a free and open source image upscaler, which I used to improve the image (I featured it in one of my photography posts). Below, I present my upscaled version of Mrs. Quince along with the original poem from Mother Earth’s Children.

Mrs. Quince poem in Mother Earth’s Children

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Illustration of a motherly woman dressed as a quince by M.T. Ross for Elizabeth Gordon's "Mother Earth's Children."
Illustration of Mrs. Quince by M.T. Ross. I used Upscayl on the original illustration as it appeared in the Project Gutenberg version of Mother Earth’s Children.
SAID busy, bustling Mrs. Quince:
      "I never have a moment since
    The jelly-making time is here;
  We're making such a lot this year."

Poem by Elizabeth Gordon.