UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



Then it came bobbing up in the boiling water on the 

 other side of the tub in a very hilarious manner, and 

 slowly took its place at the rear end of the line, while 

 the apple next in the ranks approached the jet in the 

 same coy, doubtful manner, and made the instan- 

 taneous plunge. Then the next and the next, till an 

 endless procession of apparently demure, but fun- 

 loving apples was established that kept up the circus 

 day and night. 



I was wont to take my callers out to the tub, with- 

 out any explanation, to let them see my apple per- 

 formers. Invariably every one of them, after they 

 had gazed a moment, broke out into a hearty laugh. 

 "What are you laughing at?" I would inquire. 

 "Why, it is so funny; see how those apples behave, 

 like little people." 



If I looked at them every hour in the day I was 

 bound to laugh. My little granddaughter, seven 

 years old, "a moody child, but wildly wise," spent 

 hours watching the antics of those apples. She 

 would replace them with others to see if they would 

 all behave in the same way, and then would take 

 them all out and lay them in the sim as if to rest and 

 warm them. After some days the apples began to 

 have a bruised and overworked look, and one felt 

 instinctively like taking them out. On the whole it 

 was one of the most human performances I ever saw 

 inanimate objects engage in, and confirmed Berg- 

 son's philosophy of laughter completely. 

 200 



