122 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



one time of robin's eggs, and then, like the original Adam 

 who was tempted by the apple, I had my fall, only to dis- 

 cover that those eggs Avere not exactly fresh. (Laughter). 

 So I went on in my quest for knowledge. And do you 

 know, as I think about apples, I never seemed to find until 

 to-night the apples that we used to get — those red apples 

 in the summer time, as I raced back and forth through the 

 orchard, those same "punkin" Sweets, so yellow, sweet and 

 full of juice, and the little red apple that never had a name. 

 I have never found and apple exactly like it. I think when 

 I own my farm, or I have thought, I would get some of 

 the twigs of that tree and graft them on an old tree, and 

 so I went on until I almost bought a farm. I went to the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College for three long years, 

 studying the profession of agriculture. Now, I am telling 

 you these things only to point a lesson, for we ministers 

 have to preach. God called me into the fields that were 

 sterner and harder, the fields of human life, in order that 

 He, through me, might bring forth some of the fruits of 

 righteousness in human character. Ari^ for twenty long 

 years I have been going on in that way, longing for the 

 garden and the orchard. And yet I do not think that all 

 that was lost, my early experience and my studies in that 

 scientific school along the line of agriculture. And do you 

 know^ I have learned this great lesson, that God never gives 

 to us a lesson at any time in our lives, never puts material 

 into our hands, never gave us the skill and art of reading 

 or playing on a musical instrument, but at some time 

 before w^e die we are called upon to use it. 



Then came the days when I needed to lay my head on 

 tired Nature's breast, and I had to have some scrul) acres 

 where I could go and chop wood and cut brush with a big 

 scythe in order to get back the lost vitality, and I spent 

 some time on my 20 scrub acres in the town of ^Nlarshfield, 

 Mass., where I followed my father's steps and set out apple 

 trees. I think it is a mighty good thing for a man where- 

 ever he goes to set out some trees. If you can't stay in the 



