A DAY IN AN OLD ORCHARD. 



Blessed indeed the members of that family whose 

 house, whether cottage or mansion, stands near an old 

 orchard. They will have beauty, fragrance, fruit, shel- 

 ter and shade ; visitants too, rare and enjoyable, from 

 fields and woods. Thes^e old apple trees, emblems of 

 civilization and sjanbols of man's industry and home 

 comforts, bring much more than fruit to the premises. 

 They bring the bright-winged insects and the singing 

 birds, the squirrels and the mice — inhabitants of the 

 hives, the fields and the Avoods. They bring children, 

 too, to love them and to be blessed by them, to Imnt 

 birds' nests in the branches and build play-houses in their 

 shade, to trample the grass and club the early fruit. 



It is not the modern young orchard with branches 

 trimmed and thinned, Avith the ground kept clear of 

 grass and turf, that best Ave love. HoAvever thrifty and 

 full of promise this young and cultivated orchard may 

 be, like a new house, it lacks the great charm Avjiich 

 only time can give. It is the orchard, rather, Avitli its 

 mossy trunks and gnarled and scraggy limbs, Avith foli- 

 age so dense that in many places it has driven out the 

 meadoAV grass and restored some of the Avild things of 

 the primitive Av^oods. 



