THE STORY OF AN APPLE. 



Professor H. L. Hutt. 



Fio. 67 



One evening after tea, I had just 

 settled down in my easy chair for a 

 g-lance at the newspaper, when my 

 trio of Httle folk pounced on me for 

 a story. "A fairy story," said Jean 

 " No, one about wild animals," said 

 Fred. "I like to hear about what 

 you did when you were a little boy," 

 said Gordon. Here was too much 

 of a variety to be given all at once ; 

 so I said, "Look at those beautiful 

 red apples on the table. " ' ' Wouldn't 

 you like to hear their story? " Fred 

 was doubtful whether much of a 



-Mcintosh Apples. ^^^^^^ ^^^^j^ ^^ ^^j^ -^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ppj^^, . 



but I informed him that every apple has a history, and some have a very 

 interesting one. ' What variety of apple is that? " I asked. "A Mcin- 

 tosh," they all shouted in chorus, for they had been learning the names 

 of apples, and were always pleased to be able to identify a variety 

 correctly. " How do you suppose it got that name? " I next enquired ; 

 but as this was too much for them, I said, " Well, that is where we will 

 begin our story. 



"Once upon a time Tor all good stories begin that way), about 

 thirty years ago, on a farm near Dundela, a little village in Dundas 

 County, in the St. Lawrence Valley, lived a man by the name oi Allan 

 Mcintosh. He was one of the early settlers in that section, and had 

 cleared off most of the forest which once covered his fields, only a few 

 acres of it having been left for bush. The bush was the favorite resort 

 of the cows when the weather became warm and the flies were too trouble- 

 some in the adjoining pasture field. 



"One evening, late in September, when Mr. Mcintosh's little boys, 

 Allen and Harvey, were hunting through the bush for the cows, they 

 espied just on the edge of a clearing, a little tree bearing near its top a 

 number of bright red apples. If the}- had discovered it sooner, they 

 might have found many more on the lower branches. What do you 

 suppose had become of them ? " " The cows must have got them," sug- 

 gested Fred. "Yes, the cows had found them first ; but the boys were 

 soon up the tree making sure that the cows would get no more of them. 



" The apples were at that time hardly mellow enough for eating, but 

 that did not prevent the boys from sampling them ; and they declared 

 that they were the finest wild apples they had ever tasted. Those 

 not eaten at once were taken home and kept in the cellar till the family 

 gathering at Christmas, when all present pronounced them finer than 

 any of the named varieties grown in the little orchard near the house. 



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