APPLE ORCHARD IN FULL FRUIT 113 
from the car to catch every night breath the 
boughs ran past me with caress for my face; 
and star-revealed, a bit of dark on the other 
side where another mountain across a dark 
ravine gloomed in reticent state with stars glit- 
tering on its forehead, and on we passed and 
climbed our winding ways when the drip of 
water from a wayside spring made a body thirsty 
even in the damp dark, and I wanted to stop; 
but it was past midnight and our lady must 
in sooth have her beauty sleep, not as needing 
it but as insisting on it, and our Bucephalus 
climbed on nothing lingering, toward the apple 
orchard which every moment became more 
tangible ecstasy although an invisible ecstasy, 
then a last sprint and a glimpse of green visible 
under the trifling candles of the stars, the vivid 
green of fall wheat rejoicing in its first meeting 
of the light, then a turn and a spurt of laughter 
and the apple-breath saluted us and we came to 
a laughing standstill in the heart of the apple 
orchard. 
There I slept the little remainder of the night 
with heart all eager for the dawn and the sunup 
and the promise of the apple trees. You, reader, 
if so be you have never slept in an apple orchard 
guest-room with stars for candles and sky for 
roof, and the night wandering wind for min- 
strelsy, and apple orchard smells to sift through 
your slumbers, then, know this that God has in 
store for you some belated poetry. 
