THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 107 



hidden under leaf and close to the earth, nearly 

 all berries are guarded with thorns, but the. 

 apple greets us with outstretched arms and. 

 holds her fruit within easy reach or drops it in 

 our laps, and what a royal fruit it is, fit product 

 of such sweet blossoms. Some of the branches 

 hang delightfully low and the children catch 

 hold of them and get a real sight and touch and. 

 taste of the deliciously tempting fruit. There, 

 is no fruit equal to the apple, it pleases every 

 sense, sight and smell, touch and taste. What 

 a delicate fragrance comes from its blossoms? 

 What choice flavors are in its taste. We do 

 not wonder it is the social fruit of New Eng- 

 land, in fact of North America, for this is the 

 country of the apple orchard, here it is peer- 

 less growing as nowhere else and carrying a 

 flavor such as no other country can give it. Our 

 soil and sun and climate combine to pack it 

 with the best. It is surely of the Anglo-Saxon 

 heart, loving the cold yet resisting the frost and 

 becoming a winter necessity. 



John Burroughs has written so kindly of the 

 apple orchard one can hardly escape the tinge 

 of his magnetic thoughts — nor those of Tho- 

 reau — nor yet those of Henry Ward Beecher. 

 I own their influence for a little in this paper. 

 Every old New England and Western farm has.. 



