THE DRAPERY OF VINES 2QQ 



that the Society '11 hev ter keep these, but the 

 copies that you 're goin' ter get made in pictures '11 

 .be for A-lois all right. Now the old doctor thet 's 

 dead, he had fam'ly pride, and his folks was all 

 figured out like a tree with roots and branches and 

 what not. I saw it once when I fetched hjm up 

 some fish -flies. I was thinkin' thet I 'd like these 

 here drawn out like two Sugar Maples, such as 

 those in front o' the farm up there, standin' side 

 by side, and when they 're worked up ter the top, 

 ter have the branches touch. That 's me and her, 

 and then right over that, work in A-lois' picture, 

 kind o' like an Apple, 'cause she 's the last bearin' 

 o' both trees, and she 's goin' ter star,t a new 

 plantin' all over in fresh ground." 



"But how about using Alois as an Apple on the 

 top of a Maple tree ?" I asked, struggling to take 

 exact account of his directions, for the guidance of 

 Flower Hat in the doing of this curious task for 

 which I stood sponsor. 



"I asked the doctor that about his'n, which 

 was plainly an Oak tree, and yet ev'ry name was 

 writ on an Apple. He laughed and said it was the 

 way with fam'ly trees, they took on cur'ous con- 

 trary grafts that would kill any other kind, and 

 often upset Scripter by bearin' Figs on Thorns and 



