402 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Nov. 23, igoi. 
^ 
The Boy and the Apple. 
A Study. 
In a most curious and interesting book entitled "The 
Child," recently published, the author (W. E. Chamber- 
lain) dwells on the fondness of boys for apples, and de- 
duces from this the fact that apples must have formed a 
large share in the food of primeval man. However this 
may be, it is certain that the boy loves the apple. His 
love, indeed, may be said to amount to a passion, for is 
he not prepared to run all sorts of risks or dangers — nay. 
to take his very life in his hand — ^to gratify it? 
The period at which the passion develops varies accord- 
mg to the temperament and p%sical constitution of the 
boj'-, but usually it is between the ages of iive and seven, 
and thereafter it continues to twelve or fourteen. It is 
a nice question whether the passion would develop if the 
boy were never to see or taste an apple. My own opinion 
is that it would— -being, in fact, largely hereditary. I can 
imagine a boy born at the North Pole, say, having vague 
visions of an orchard and hungering to be at, large 
therein. 
It has often been a cause of wonder to some why the 
boy loves the green apple so much more than the ripe 
tne. The matter is easily explained. The green apple 
is the first to appear— the first to catch the bov's eye. 
He promptly lavisiies all the desire of his open" nature 
upon it. It is his Jirst love. Later, when the apple is 
ripe and far more fair to the eye and sweet to the taste, 
the boy has been surfeited — well, not exactly surfeited, 
but pretty well satisfied. 
.1 believe it has never been mathematically ascertained 
how many green apples a boy can eat. Some contend 
that the number is countless, but of course this is an 
exaggeration. There is no doubt, however, that the 
boy's capacity in this respect is very great, and there is 
certainly no doubt that his desire far exceeds his capacity. 
_ The more or less paiiu'ul results of greeu-apple dissipa- 
tion make practically no impression on the boy's mind. 
I have seen a boy writhe in agony and howl so that he 
could be heard all over the neighborhood, in consequence 
of a dissipation of the kind referred to, and yet the fol- 
lowing day I have seen that same boy accept with a smile 
an apple sq green and malevolent looking that it might 
have been taken for the eye of jealousy. If painful physi- 
cal experience is so quickly forgotten by the boy it is 
hardly necessary to say that warnings or admonitions 
stand no chance at all of being remembered. There is 
no time employed by a fo! 1 mother so likely to be abso- 
lutely fruitless (paradoxic... as it mi.y seem) .as that in 
which she beseeches — often with tears — her youthful son 
to avoid green apples. 'Tis truly love's labor lost. The 
boy can no more resist the green apple than can the 
moth the tlame. 
I pity the boy that does not live in the r.eighborhood 
of an orchard; as I also pity him that lives in the neigh- 
borhood of too many. The ideal state is to have one or 
two (preferably one) situated about a mile from the boy's 
home. Then all the conditions necessary to the gratifi- 
cation of the boy's predatory instinct exist. No sooner 
has he become cognizant of the orchard than he marks 
it for his own._ No tree — no single apple — in that orchard 
shall escape him. Thus does his infant mind, swayed by 
limitless desire, determine. Then with remarkable 
acumen he takes his bearings. If the orchard is sur- 
rounded by a wall (as is sometimes the case), he observes 
the part most easily scaled; if by an iron railing with 
spikes he calculates how to get over these without being 
impaled (and he never gets impaled); if by an ordinary 
fence he simply chuckles at the ease with which he can 
lorce his way through. Then he takes the angle of the 
house, or of the windows looking upon the orchard, and 
lays out in imagination a route among the trees in which 
he shall be most hidden from observation. 
Having done this, the boy, in a state of delicious excite- 
ment, proceeds to make his raid. It is extremely likely 
that during this first raid he will have no sooner got foot 
in the orchard than he will take alarm (even by the very 
beating of his own heart) and scurry back in all haste. 
But this failure only whets his appetite, and he returns 
a second time, determined to do or die. However, he is 
still a raw recruit, so to speak, and any slight noise, 
such as the fluttering of a bird, or the jumping of a squir- 
rel, is apt to scare him, but instead of scurrying back as 
before he now only crouches, throwing his fearful eyes 
about him. When the noise ceases (if it be no more 
serious than that indicated), he advances cautiously under 
the nearest tree, plucks off a few apples within reach, or 
gathers up a few windfalls, and with these beats a retreat. 
The third time he makes his attempt he is far more 
bold, and actually shakes the tree. The noise of the 
falling apples, if any should fall, gives him a great shock, 
but he quickly gets over it, fills his pockets to their ut- 
most capacity, likewise his cap, and makes his exit, 
glowing" with a sense of victory. 
The boy may now be said to have seen service, follow- 
ing our simile. With each succeeding raid he becomes 
bolder, until finally he will sit in a tree within full view 
of the windows and munch an apple. But the con- 
temptuousness of this proceeding breeds trouble fortheboy. 
One day he hears a shout — a most terrifying shout — or he 
may even hear the report of a shotgun. At this, the 
apple falls from his grasp— his shining cheeks, which vied 
with the color of the apple, become pale as death, and he 
really thinks that his last hour has come. But after that 
awful shout, or report (for of course it was only intended 
to scare off the boy) all becomes still. Urged by the 
instinct of self-preservation the boy drops rather than 
climbs down from the tree and like an arrow is out of the 
orehard. 
One would think that this adventure ought to put 
the boy out of conceit with his amusement, but it docs 
nothing of the kind. It only teaches him prudence. He 
now finds out all about the comings and goings of the 
owner of the orchard, and bides his time for a raid. As 
for the women of the household, he does not fear them 
in the least. 'Tis true he will fly if they disturb him, but 
he will fiy plucking fruit as he goes and laughing scorn- 
fully; If, perchance, the owner should be too long with- 
out making a trip from home the boy grows desperate 
and will even brave the shotgun, or what is still more 
extraordinary, he will get up at dead of night and brave 
ghosts and hobgoblins to get an apple, for the apple he 
must have. 
_ Oh, that stolen apple of boyhood! How its taste 
lingers in the memory! It is recorded of an epicure who 
was wont to dine on the choicest productions of the 
cuisine, that having been asked what particular thing he 
had most relished in his life, he answered: "A green 
apple." Francis Moonan. 
Florida Lakes. 
Forest anb Stream has many friends. Some of them 
may at present anticipate a visit to Florida to spend this 
winter in its climate. The peninsula wins more tourists 
to it evei'y year. The sunny days are irresistible. Down 
there mockingbirds sing in every grove, and quail call 
through all the wild glades; wheels plow sand melodies, 
forests intone drowsily, and lakes wash shore-lines to 
lazy response. South Florida is only a nest of lakes, 
all of them round, each its own shade of blue, a magnifi- 
cent clutch of eggs in which the hatching is but slightly 
separate. Shoals have in them fish that look to be sus- 
pended in air, and blue iris growing in connecting runs 
welcome approach with a friendly hello. The visitor to 
this part of the State, if he wish to have a pleasant time, 
besides providing himself with gun and tackle, should 
own a light boat, if only a cheap canvas canoe. 
Plans for canvas craft are plentiful. Forest and 
Stream advertises a number of pamphlets on the subject. 
With such help even a tyro can build a fairly good boat. 
Make it light for work on small lakes, if portages are to 
be acci'OfipHshed. but spread the beam to .ir least ihiny 
inches for stability. Ten ounce duck is a suitable canva.s 
fiir cover. We bought a supply directlj^ from the home 
mill, as the Southern market offered only slazy goods. 
Nearly every Florida settlement had its sawmill, at whicli 
framing could be had for little more than tlie asking, 
and paint or ether necessary material could lie puiv.hased 
cheaply from any of the local merchants. As there was 
some difficulty in dressing the lumber with such tools as 
we had CfU hand, j'tout square frames oxteudin^ ixvw) 
gunwale to gunwale, also six feet in length, served as 
coaming, this form of cockpit giving great strength to 
decks. Some of the boats had outriggers and oars, while 
others were driven with home-made paddles. 
The three double-enders fiill in view of the pliotograpli 
were covered with canvas. The one to thz loft wa." my 
first attempt at canoe building. When new it v,'as }-eliovv- 
with oiling and nearly transparent. Uncle John, the 
husband of our laundress, seeing us afloat on the yellow 
thing, cautioned us against trying the lalcc on a pine 
plank. Our first trip is well remembered by both of the 
crew. .\ flight of bubbles and ripples discernible through 
the floor of our boat as they fled sternward impaired our 
confidence. We went up the home lake, through a run, 
across Sawmill Lake, down the outlet a short distance, 
then homeward, a pretty trip surely, but one on which 
neither of us saw much scenery, because of our close at- 
tention to the btibbles passing beneath the canoe. In 
time this view appeared less dreadful. 
Of course our new idea aroused comment of an un- 
favorable kind. New ideas always do. Our fleet became 
the object of derision, and in heart-to-heart talks dearly 
loved friends called our boats ragbags — said they were 
pretty enough, and fast enough, but so dangerous^ that 
we ourselves ought to he looked after, if not everlastingly 
confined. A pleasing little episode during a stormy day, 
on which the smallest canoe went to the rescue of a large 
wooden boat, quieted somewhat popular caisure. De- 
feating the Judge's large sailboat afterward with a small 
canoe, and driving Judge to his orange grove and flowers 
for future divertisement, also had a noticeable effect on 
the general public. The Judge might often be seen up 
in his yard looking wistfully seaward, but he never came 
out again, at least while there could be descried in the 
offlng the tiniest sort of small sail. We often wondered 
what he had in mind, if he was pronouncing life sentence 
on the designer of canvas canoes. 
None of us had the slightest reason to be boastful. 
From the real estate man with his large umbrella to the 
most adventurous sailor with six feet of lateen, our ex- 
tremists in area of spread, all would have been scorned 
by cruisers thought to be slow on other waters. In 
local parlance, we were "new" beginners, who had but 
little knowledge of proper rig, had discovered for our- 
selves the primary principles of navigation, through ex- 
periment or disaster. It became clear, even to our intelli- 
gence, though, after one or two disconcerting mishaps, 
that a mast stepped too near the bow caused our ships 
to, catch the wind with heels dangerously, but stepped 
nearer the stern caused the bow to head toward Avind 
safely. Even our best cruisers, having but minimum of 
keel," in windward work drifted so far that destination be- 
came a matter of conjecture, a pleasing uncertainty, in 
which the aim was ambitious but the restUt surprising, 
repeated ventures an argosy. The size of cockpit on 
larger boats enabled one to steer by shifting his weight, 
a desirable quality in stalking duck, also if the skipper 
wished to sail recumbent, with clouds for his gaze, 
dreaming of the yesterdays and plotting gay tomorrows. 
Though we exploited more distant water, some that 
had never been tried with hook and line, the fishing in 
our home lake was fair, and the best of it was readily 
discovered by crirising. I do not remember a more de- 
lightful pastime than that w^e had while urging slowly 
along, our casts barely reachmg the grass edge, or while 
at anchor in a productive cove and taking our bass 
fighters from either side. Minnows were caught by 
using a mixture of dough and cotton, or with bits of 
sawyer grubs found under the bark of deadened pine 
timber, on hooks smaller than I have ever seen except 
at the local stores. The best fishiilg, both bass and 
speckled perch, began with February. 
The duck shooting to be had through the winter, 
though it seldom results in over-filled gamebags, will be 
found a test of marksmanship, as the sport begins when 
the flocks come from the flatwoods to the lakes after 
sunset, or at a time that affords only -i half-light. Their 
speed is terrific, most of the flights being of the bufHe- 
head or Qmgula variety, nearly the swiftest flytnr H»nwn 
to hunters. Between lakes the best stands are in scrub 
from which a long view ahead enables the watcher to see 
approaching game. ' If the hunting party has been too 
eager in arriving at the place selected, there will be a 
long period of waiting for sunset, peidiaps of sitting 
around on stumps and smoking, often until the after-glow 
has mounted overhead, when some one will exclaim 
"mark forward;" or to other point in view, as signal for 
every one to be at attention. Then swiftly coming 
specks awa;^ oif yonder will grow to size, become a streak 
above, receive a fusilade, and pass on, too frequently with 
none of their number missing. There was a good stand 
on the far shore of our home lake. Sailing over there 
with the sunset breeze, we returned with the first move- 
inent of night air, if very dark our course laid by town 
lights, the party well satisfied if any of us had secured 
even a brace of game, though better bags were made. 
At times we whiled away the afternoon with trying for 
bass in a brushy run, or carried a canoe overland to fish 
in the second lake; afterward to shoot at ducks from our 
unstable position. 
But just idle drifting, especially on hot days, the canoe 
a shuttle, passed gently here and there, breeze whimsical, 
lazy fish rising at intervals, sound and view everywhere 
reduced to soothing perfection, course always heading 
for shores of mockingbird song, this boating is ideal 
enough to suit the most exacting fancy. Sunshine from 
above kindles sunshine in the heart. To avoid over- 
storage one has the shore trees, great mountains of lace, 
from whose shade there is such a pretty outlook through 
moss streamers, mirage often giving to all within sight 
a pleasing unreality. I3uring the intense heat many bass, 
perch, shiners, and soft-turtles, besides rarer creatures, 
come for shelter to the grass edge and the dark shoals, 
where gliding the canoe reveals all of them to sight, and 
on retired lakes huge alligators exhibit for contemplation. 
The mind of hutnan under these conditions, affected by 
heat and surroundings, knows not actuality from dream, 
nor does it care in the least for its confusion, or for its 
drifting subject only to the whim of fancy through 
regions of languor, through a voluptuous placidity, along 
sleep route in the domain of lazy-hazy or wake-me-not. 
Toward evening, our own lake became more animated. 
Boating parties appeared. Shore teams plunged into the 
water of fords. Fishermen took position. One family 
waded neck deep into the cove and cast floating rods. 
Those afternoons were delightful. Bob White declared 
himself from every coast. Sirens on piers sang senti- 
mental <iitty to which mariners dared not pay heed. 
Cattlemen in the surrounding hills yodled unctiously as 
they approached, passed along our coast, then lost them- 
selves in extreme distance. TwiHght, the voice of chuck- 
will, and bright stars at last became signal for crews 
to hurry home, our boats roaring. 
At those times, however, when wind sweeps the moss 
along shore into lashing throngs, the lake into a field 
of drifting plumes, one heads his canoe over white tumuli, 
tossed high, just hitting unusual crests, the spray to 
• strike his face a delicious bath. Crew bids good-by to 
land, cradles a short while amid seas, rushes toward the 
far coast, then comes .about to repeat until a point of 
shore well to windward has been attained, when a grand 
race with the waves may be taken, the boat on its head- 
long course running on even keel without plunge. On 
stormy nights, with place of sail a conjecture, with up- 
roar of water like outcry from a great mob, direction 
a matter of uncertainty and no care, one sails at random, 
with his soul full of supernal bliss, a joy that grows 
through close sympathy into a near comradeship witli 
turbulent nature; and when he has landed one hears the 
lake plead with him to come back — come back and play 
forever, the whole being an experience to renew in 
dreams! ' H. R. Steiger. 
In the Ranger Service. 
BY ROWLAND E. ROBINSON. 
XL — Coos Meadows. 
Next morning I shot a sheldrake in the stream, that 
gave us a full meal, and soon after setting forth we came 
upon the trail of a large party, and at night reached the 
camp of a number of our people, made up of small parties 
who had chanced to come together. They had all suffered 
such hardship as we had endured, but were now in high 
hopes of soon reaching the Coos, I was rejoiced to find 
Borden and Porter, whom I had given up for lost, among 
them, very weak and miserable though they were, for I 
doubted not they, as many another, had met such a fate 
as poor Murphy. 
It was not a little to us that we were again under the 
lead of the commander, in whom we had such faith. He 
encouraged and strengthened every one by his own ex- 
ample of cheerfulness and fortitude, and, though he fully 
shared all our hardships and privations, he was still the 
strongest man among us. Before next noon we were 
gladdened by the sight of the open light of day and the 
gleam of the broad river shining between great trunks of 
pine, almost to their roots, and a glad sight to see the thin 
smoke of a camp-fire drifting tip among the branches, for 
it assured us that our deliverance was at hand. All order 
of march was broken, and every one struggled forward in 
disregard of commands, the stronger thrusting aside the 
weaker in their eagerness to be first succored. Supporting 
my weaker charge, we came almost last to the river bank 
and there beheld such a scene of rage and despair as I 
shall never forget. Some were cursing madly, some had 
thrown themselves prone upon the ground, some stood 
mute, others waded out into the river to gaze vainly past 
the nearest bend down the empty reaches. The relief, 
after brief waiting, had departed so lately that their fire 
was yet blazing ; odors of cooking still lingered in the air, 
and cast away fragments of bountiful meals were strewn 
about or charred in the embers, in cruel mockery of 
starving men. The fragments were snatched eagerly out 
of the ashes and hurriedly eaten. Guns were fired to 
recall the men who had been sent for our relief, but only 
.served to hasten their retreat, they believing them to be 
fired by the enemy, as we afterward learned. I never saw 
our brave coinmander so nearly disheartened, at one mo 
rnent dumb with dejection, at the next breaking forth in 
fearful imprecations. 
"Miserable cowards! Heartless scoundrels! Recreanf 
to the duties pf soldiers and humanity!" 
