THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



Later, thunder showers and the winds 

 brought down ripening fruit, that filled us 

 with apprehension, the strain of which was 

 not relieved until the middle of September. 

 Then a man, who lived in an adjoining vil- 

 lage and made a business of buying in or- 

 chards as they stood, came up to the house, 

 and offered $70 for the crop, which I ac- 

 cepted most readily, as my husband's business 

 had taken him to California, and Sidney and 

 I could never have picked and packed the 

 fruit for market. 



When the huckster paid me, he volunteered 

 the information that there were a mighty lot 

 of good trees in the orchard, if they were only 

 trimmed up a little; adding that, many a sea- 

 son in the past, he had paid from three to four 

 hundred dollars for the crop. The man re- 

 ceived my most devout thanks, for we had 

 considered the orchard as almost hopeless at 

 least never expecting to get more than enough 

 fruit for our own use from it; but knowing, 

 from hearsay, that the man was an unerring 



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