The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-18
rHR pAYs CONS nY.
iBarae,,s. sa Hrookiyn Eaeie.l

Not because wanted 1t; oh, 10 | did it to save human hse-my own human life. did it to appease tho train boy, who had turned himself loose on me at Council Bluff, and vas going to make me buy something before we got to s. Joseph-pronouneed Sinjo heavy accent to buy all of Professor Matthews books except the gospel, and nine of E. ?. Rass novels, and TayloF's World on Wheels" and " Between the Gates" and seven or eight of Pinkerton's fearful and wonder. fal detective stories, and whole library of French novels with very dashy titles and disappointingly tame reading, and some California pears and Siberian oranges, and some Alaska figs and Sene- gambian grapes, some candy packages with beautiful prize and $Io bill in every package except the one he sold me, and some ivory ornaments made of ivory that grows on trees, and some fresh roasted peanuts which he assured me were George Washington's favorite fruit, that would purify the blood, make the hair curl, whitsn tho teeth, make the complexion clear and promote longevity, and some English walnut meats, vintage of l7s3, railroad guide of last July and some apples.
 reflected. did not think ought to buy all these things, because l have family to support, and am not as wealthy as am said to be by the soliciting com mittees of poverty stricken churches and tottering colleges. But felt, as perhaps you have felt a thousand times, dear k~o h~k1 kaA N< A,ax. m&ktAv Af that boy, or lie down on the floor of the car and die.
 So bought apples. selected apples because they are palatable, nutritious and cheap. asked him how he sold his apples. With exceeding scorn he said "Twofsrasent (which by interpretation is, Two for a cent). think he said two for a cent. know l had just missed lecture engagement by railroading into a snow drift the night before, and con.e- quently had just enough money left to bay one, in job lot.
 1 bit it with great difficulty and little joy, sing hey, the leathery fungus that 1t was. handed 1t back to the boy and told him to keep 1t he might want to kill dog with it some day. The boy, with the native independence of his class, said didn't know a good apple when got one. He opined, and very opinely, too, in loud toae of expression, for the benefit of the whole car, that when had any orchard fruit at home regaled my self like prince on dried apples.
 l did not smite the boy nor uPbraid him with hard and stinging words. More indeed, in sorrow than in anger l told him did know what good apple was and knew where they used to grow, and, moreover, if he would bring me one now, my entire bank account, with all the heredita ments, protests and overdrafts thereunto appertaining, should be his. The only good apples ia the world, iineai descendants ofthe golden stock of Hesper- ides, used to grow, twenty. five or thirty years ago, on an old farm three or four miles out of Peoria, Illinois, on the Mount Holly read. l told the boy they were not always a fair apple to look upon in their early youth, when l loved them best. They were hard on one side and green on the other. They were gnarly all the way round and sour all the way through. There was more heartache and sorrow and deep seated, gnawing re. morse and heartfelt sorrow and honest penitence in one Of those apples, after you had eaten a peck of them in one afternoon, than there is now in whole green watermelon.
 Nevertheless, ssed to go into that Ir:3o, and then feel hungry for big din- ner.
 And told the boy if he would bring me one of those apples now, with the same old taste and flavor that 1t had a quarter of century gone by, with the same old smell of the clover and apple blossom lingering about it the same old idle breczes that kissed my boyish chee ks in the long, delightful, truant summer afternoons; with the whistle of bob white over in the stubble field beyond the COW pasture; with the murmur of the brook that went singing over the white pebbles at the foot of the orchard hill with the music of the bees humming and buzzing about in the sweet clover tops bring them to me even with the old, we'll remembered and peculiarly pungent fla. vor of the buggy whip which frequently seasoned those apples-because no boy could always gst over the fence in time -I told him would gladly, gladly gladly give him $50 for just one apple.
 But the boy looked at me with name. less fear. and backed down the aisle ol the car, and touched the conductor or the elbow and said:
 "Billl Say, Bill! Who has charge of the lunatic on the wood-box
 An, dearly beloved, there is DO lunacy about it We know now, and some day the boy will know, that apples are not SC good to-day as they were twenty -6vs years ago. Nothing is 90 good to us, in fact The apples are tough and flavor less the grass is wiry and thin wssrs !; used to be living velvet under our feet the days are not SO long the nights have grown colder; the stars shine less brighly and there are not 90 many of them; counted them the other night and there are half dozen missing the COWS don'' come home SO early the dogs are crosser Christmas doesn't come 90 clsse apart al