Comfort Me with Apples 201 



thing but a real story ; the notion that Pilgrim s 

 Progress was an allegory never entered my mind. 



" Now there was on the other side of the wall a Garden. 

 And some of the Fruit-Trees that grew in the Garden shot 

 their Branches over the Wall, and being mellow, they that 

 found them did gather them up and oft eat of them to their 

 hurt. So Christiana's Boys, as Boys are apt to do, being 

 pleas' 'd with the Trees did Plash them and began to eat. 

 Their Mother did also chide them for so doing, but still 

 the Boys went on. Now Matthew the Eldest Son of 

 Christiana fell sick. . . . There dwelt not far from thence 

 one Mr. Skill an Antient and well approved Physician. 

 So Christiana desired it and they sent for him and he came. 

 And when he was entered the Room and a little observed 

 the Boy he concluded that he was sick of the Gripes. Then 

 he said to his Mother, What Diet has Matthew of late fed 

 upon ? Diet, said Christiana, nothing but which is wholesome. 

 The Physician answered, This Boy has been tampering with 

 something that lies in his Maw undigested. . . . Then said 

 Samuel, Mother, Mother, what was that which my brother did 

 gather up and eat. You know there was an Orchard and my 

 Brother did plash and eat. True, my child, said Christiana, 

 naughty boy as he was. I did chide him and yet he would eat 

 thereof:' 



The realistic treatment of Mr. Skill and Matthew's 

 recovery thereby need not be quoted. 



An historic Apple much esteemed in Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island, and often planted at the edge of 

 the flower garden, is called the Sapson, or Early 

 Sapson, Sapson Sweet, Sapsyvine, and in Pennsyl- 

 vania, Wine-sap. The name is a corruption of the 

 old English Apple name, Sops-o'-wine. It is a 



