this crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And this is
such fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and carried
home will be sound and palatable next spring. What care I for
Iduna's apples so long as I can get these?

When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling
fruit, I respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature's bounty,
even though I cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hillside
has grown an apple-tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former
orchard, but a natural growth, like the pines and oaks. Most fruits
which we prize and use depend entirely on our care. Corn and grain,
potatoes, peaches, melons, etc., depend altogether on our planting;
but the apple emulates man's independence and enterprise. It is not
simply carried, as I have said, but, like him, to some extent, it
has migrated to this New World, and is even, here and there, making
its way amid the aboriginal trees; just as the ox and dog and horse
sometimes run wild and maintain themselves.

Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most
unfavorable position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so
noble a fruit.





THE CRAB.