TALKING APPLE BLOSSOMS 107 



There were hundreds of trees in full bloom. 

 It was like fairyland to Ruth, and flinging 

 herself down on the grass she looked lovingly 

 up at the blossoms and then at the blue sky 

 beyond. For some minutes everything was very 

 quiet and then could it be possible? yes, 

 she surely heard the apple blossoms talking. 

 Their voices were sweet and musical, but very 

 sad. 



One big pink-and- white blossom said to a 

 beauty on the next tree, '"Isn't it terrible that 

 Farmer Barrett is going to make cider of us 

 this fall? I would stop growing if I could and 

 not turn into an apple at all. I heard a boy 

 once say when he came whistling into the or- 

 chard, 'I was made to be eaten and not to be 

 drank.' Perhaps he was not talking about us, 

 but that's just what I think about apples. 

 Send us to the cider mill! Why, it's dreadful. 

 Ruth Barrett's cider mill, those pretty white 

 teeth of hers, are the onlv kind of mill I'm 



mJ 



willing to be ground up in." 



"How do you know that Farmer Barrett 

 means to put us into a horrid cider mill and 

 turn us into a drink that makes people cross 



