LIFE IN THE WOODS 



don't know the wild apple that Thoreau 

 describes, but those that grow lavishly in the 

 woods of Cape Ann are not to be despised. I 

 think I am safe in claiming that one-half of 

 the wild trees bear sweet fruit. Many of the 

 other half bear cooking-apples as good, or 

 better, than can be found in most cultivated 

 orchards. I know of several trees that bear 

 fruit resembling the Baldwin in color and 

 taste, and not much inferior in size. In a 

 secluded spot, where a ledge on one side and 

 a dense mass of catbrier on all other sides 

 hides it from prying eyes, stands a wild apple- 

 tree. Its fruit has no peer in woods or or- 

 chard. It is large, with a thin skin greenish- 

 yellow in color. To the taste it is slightly 

 acid, with a rich spicy flavor. Only three 

 wood-folk know the secret of this vild apple- 

 tree. A grouse, a rabbit, and a hermit. The 

 grouse nests just over the ledge, the rabbit 

 has a burrow underneath the mass of catbrier, 

 and the hermit nests in the open air, and lives 

 close to Nature, too. 



Sometimes farmers with orchards offer to 

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