THE APPLE. 143 



where, and borne fruit till the grass beneath them has 

 become thick and soft from human contact, and who 

 have nourished robins and finches in their branches 

 till they have a tender, brooding look. The ground, 

 the turf, the atmosphere of an old orchard, seem 

 several stages nearer to man than that of the adjoin- 

 ing field, as if the trees had given back to the soil 

 more than they had taken from it; as if they had 

 tempered the elements and attracted all the genial 

 and beneficent influences in the landscape around. 



An apple orchard is sure to bear you several crops 

 beside the apple. There is the crop of sweet and ten- 

 der reminiscences dating from childhood and span- 

 ning the seasons from May to October, and making 

 the orchard a sort of outlying part of the household. 

 You have played there as a child, mused there as a 

 youth or lover, strolled there as a thoughtful, sad- 

 eyed man. Your father, perhaps, planted the trees, 

 or reared them from the seed, and you yourself have 

 pruned and grafted them, and worked among them, 

 till every separate tree has a peculiar history and 

 meaning in your mind. Then there is the never- 

 failing crop of birds robins, goldfinches, king-birds, 

 cedar-birds, hair-birds, orioles, starlings all nest- 

 ing and breeding in its branches, and fitly described 

 by Wilson Flagg, as " Birds of the Garden and Or- 

 chard." Whether the pippin and sweetbough bear 

 or not, the " punctual birds " can always be depended 

 on. Indeed, there are few better places to study orni- 

 thology than in the orchard. Besides its regular oc- 



