The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-10-24
The Old Orchard.

The old Orchard (! Don't you wish
you were there to-day? We do not
mean the nurseries of little trees, with
brushed up tops, that stand nowadays
like the inmates of Charity school
nor yet the small shrubbery of the
good goddess Pomona, whose offerings
these many years can be counted, and
whose infant branches yet lack the con-
fidence of birds, and never bore nest,
or sheltered a song, or flung a shadow
larger than handkerchief.
Of course we mean nothing like that
at all, but the dear old orchard on the
southern slope, where the shadows
used to play all about in the sun, and
children in the shadows, and glad
hearts in the children the old orchard
that came with the pioneer, and grew
up, side by side with the girls and boys,
and We're set close to the house, and
not great ways from the barn.
The recOllectiOns that cling around
those old trees are as fragrant and
beautiful as their blossoms were, when
like the snow from some cloud that
angels had breathed upon, they clung
TO the branches, unmelted by the sun,
till the wind shook them down in a
shower. All, this life we are leading
is for all the world like the blossoms :;
for didn't they hang in little clusters
together, and what promise they gave
of fruit by and by, but how seldom it
was tina: there were more than an ap-
pie or two to whole family of white
promises. And that perhaps is the
reason why youth looks 80 beautiful to
all, for how full the world is of orchards
in bloom.
We know you have not forgotten
where the Seek-no- furthers" stood 4;
we called them " Signifyders" then, but
that don't signify. Then there were
the "Russets" in the second row from
the bars, and the great " Golden Sweet
ing" under the lee of the barn, and the
Harvest Bough" which was close to
the fence and very convenient to climb
to; and there used to be, you remem-
ber, marks thereon of much scram bling
and kicking; and many missile of a
club have the fallen leaves revealed,
,. lying among its branches, but the er-
, rand it had gone on was undoubtedly
done long ago, and the fiinger-what
= we ask, has become of him? Has he
: striven for other fruit since? Has he
struggled for the clusters upon the
,, Dead Seas shore; did they appear
, beautiful to his eye and turn to ashes
: in his hand? Was he a brother, and
is he changed and afar off? Was he a
friend, and did you mourn him, and i,
he dead? Have the blossoms come
: down, is the fruit gathered, and the
r summer gone over forever? There
# too, was the Greening, the "RhOde Is
land Greening," exactly in the center
of the orchard, at whose foot the ole
red lion" made his lair, and whence he
sailed, in "round about" and striped
trowsers, when the boldest of us ven
tured to "dare him out of his den" tt
catch some well-conditioned "hen" in
! straw hat and tow jacket. 1t was a
e that tree we each had taken our turn
E to "blind," until the shrill scoop" rang
: i'm every direction from among tn,
! shadows. Some of us have encoun
n tered "lion in the way" since then
and some have sought in vain tn,
friends that clouds and binding storm
g have scattered abroad. 1t is yer,
: queer how We keep up the old game
:. to the last.
:. And then when brown October came
If and the great ripe apples hung lik
:; garnets and emeralds and comedians
to the half leafless branches, and begal
e to fall, one after another, of their owl
y !, accord, glancing from limb to limb, a
r if reluctant to leave the tree they ha,
el always lived in, what time we had il
,e the harvesting! "Our man" went u
Is into the trees and shook them like
= great ague, while with shouts of brav
b. delight we withstood the rattlin
in shower beneath. Then the cister
y" hook was brought into requisition t
give some refractory limb ahearty shak
ing. Then we were sent out, creepin
n. like young cat-mountains upon the mo,
ambitious boughs, to pluck off the 10
terers, until every tree was as bare a
it was born. And then they lay j
of yellow, red and green, all over the eartf
and how they flew into piles the jasper
and topazes, here they were crimson
: there they were gold. Down to th
, cellar, whittier we all tend, when wintr
winds begin to blow, they went in ba
lkets and barrels and bins,