29 
and instead wears one of red or yellow; and from being 
hard to the touch, it becomes soft and yielding when 
you press it with your fingers. If not picked, then it 
falls upon the ground in order to show you that it is wait- 
ing for you; and when you bite into it, you find it juicy, 
and pleasant to the taste. 
While eating such an apple as this, you can be sure 
that when you come to the inner part, which holds its 
seeds, you will find these brown, and ripe, and quite 
ready to be set free from the case which has held them 
so carefully all summer. 
~ But how does the apple still further protect its young 
till they are ready to go out into the world? 
Well, stop and think what happened one day last 
summer when you stole into the orchard and ate a 
quantity of green apples, the little seeds of which were 
far too white and young to be sent off by themselves. 
In the first place, as soon as you began to climb 
the tree, had you chosen to stop and listen, you could 
almost have heard the green skins of those apples call- 
ing out to you, “ Don’t eat us, we’re not ripe yet!” 
And when you felt them with your fingers, they were 
hard to the touch; and this hardness said to you, ‘“‘ Don’t 
€abus, we re not ripe yet!”’ 
But all the same, you ate them; and the sour taste 
which puckered up your mouth said to you, “Stop eat- 
ing us, we’re not ripe yet!” 
But you did not pay any attention to their warnings ; 
and, though they spared no pains, those apples were 
not able to save their baby seeds from being wasted by 
your greediness. - 
