OAK APPLES. 33 



hollow things and went my way, and now we 

 will discuss them. 



I recall that when I was a boy it seemed 

 singular to me that such a plump, tight, invit- 

 ing looking fruit with a nice name was clearly 

 no apple at all, and utterly unfit to eat. When 

 broken open it proved to be nearly all shell. 

 In the centre of it was a spidery looking lump, 

 hard and woody. If some person had come 

 forward and explained the difficulty how gladly 

 would he have been received, but the aptitudes 

 and eager curiosity of children are but little 

 heeded, and if all taste and talent are not either 

 quenched by open rebuke or servile drudgery it 

 is because some finer traits can survive even the 

 most unfriendly treatment. 



We will now cut open this apple and take 

 out this spider-like core and carefully open it. 

 Separating it into several pieces we find three 

 or four small grubs, alive and active. The first 

 question is to learn how they got there. There 

 are no holes through which they entered. They 

 were hatched from eggs where they are. Now 

 there are flies that lay their eggs in apple 

 blossoms just where the tiny apples begin, and 

 these hatch, and hence the worms in the 

 apples. 



The same takes place in other fruit. Here 



