A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



load me with windfalls, and are incredulous 

 when I tell them that I have an abundant 

 supply of apples, as good as those on their 

 best trees. I am the proud owner of an or- 

 chard as well as the farmer, and my orchard 

 gives greater enjoyment. The farmer visits 

 his orchard to see how the fruit is setting. 

 It is a humdrum affair. He walks down this 

 row and up that, so the inspection is soon 

 over. It takes me several days to inspect my 

 orchard, while each night I return loaded 

 with wild flowers and experience. There are 

 no stiff rows to follow. My orchard is laid 

 out without regard to quadrangles or tri- 

 angles. It is Nature's plan, engineered on 

 a grand scale, to supply the wants of the 

 greatest number of her wild children, the 

 mice, rabbits, grouse, robins, quail, squirrels, 

 and woodchucks. 



Where cattle are pastured in the woods, 

 the evolution of an apple-tree, as described 

 by Thoreau, is going on now as it did in his 

 day. During the eighteen years of my hermit 

 life some of the trees have emancipated them- 

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