Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-05-21
TWO APPLES.
~rnc one Burdette bought of the train
Roy and the Other one

f I TO save human life, 1 did 1t to APPS
k,ease the tram boy, who had turned
i3& himself loose on me at Council Bluffs,
and was going TO make me buy somes
Nj hing before we got to st. Joseph
S& pronounced Sinjo accent on the Jo)
- lick me. He wanted me 10 buy all
MI Prof. Mathews books except the
Gospel. and nine of K p. Roe's novels,
aud Taylor's "World on Wheels, y
IN nd Between the Gates, and seven
81 on eight of Pinkerton's fearful and
~ wonderful detective stories, and a
rs whole library of French novels with
Very hashy titles and disappointingly
# kane reading, and some California
81 pears and Siberian oranges, and some
Al A Iaska figs and Senegambian grapes,
and some candy packages with beau
III nful prize and SO bill in every
81 uackaee except the one he sold me.
M aud some ivory ornaments made of
81 ivory that grows on trees, and some
fresh roasted peanuts which he assur-
81 ed me were George Washington's
81 faTorite fruit, that would purify the
~ blood, make the hair curl, whiten the
NJ teeth, make the complexion clear,
u and promote longevity, and some
III English walnut meats, vintage of 1888.
railway guide. of last July, and some
81 apples.
"A reflected. I did not think | ought
II 10 buy all these things, because nave
NJ family to support, and l am not so
81 wealthy as | am said to be by the So
NJ letting committees of poverty-stricks
q en- churches and tottering colleges.
81 But / felt, as perhaps you have felt,
thousand times, dear nearer, that
n had to buy something of that boy, or
u lie down on the floor of the car and
8 die.
Il So / bought apples. l selected
n apples because they are palatable,
d nutritious and cheap. | asked him
n how he sold his apples. With exceed
n ing Scorn he said twoforacent"
(Which by Interpretation is, two for a
u cent. | think he said two for a cent.
q know | had just missed lecture en-
n gagement by railr oading into snow
Il drift the night before, and consequent
4 Ey had just enough money left to buy
one, in a job lot
u l bit it with great difficulty and
n little JOY, sing hey, The leathery fun
gus that it was. handed it back to
30 the boy and told him to keep it; he
might wan. to kill dog with it some
day. The boy, with the native inde>
& QeRdence of his class. said that |
didn't know a good apple when l got
one. He opined, indeed, and very
opinely, too, in loud tone of express
sion, for the benefit of the whole car,
that when | had any orchard fruit at
home regaled myself, like prince
on dried apples.
did not smlte the boy or upbraid
aim with hard and singing words.
More, indeed, in sorrow than in an
ger / told him ! did know what good
apple was, and moreover, if he would
bring me one now my entire bank
account with all the hereditaments,
protests, and overdrafts thereunto ap-
pertaining, should be his. The only
good apples in the world lineal &c
scendants OF the golden stock of Hes
perides, used to grow, twenty-five or
thirty years ago, on an old farm three
or four miles out of Peoria, Ill, on
the Mount Holly road, told the boy
they were not always a fair apple to
look upon in their early youth, when
I 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 remorse, and
heartfelt sorrow, and honest penitence
in one of thost apples, after you had
- ~
afternoon, than there is now in a
green watermelon.
Nevertheless | used to go into that
orchard at s A. NJ, eat apples till
II:3O, and then feel hungry for big
dinner.
And / told the boy if he would bring
me some Of those apples now, with
che same old taste and flavor that it
had quarter of century gone by,
with the same old smell of the clover
and apple blossom lingering obout it;
the same old idle breezes that kissed
my boyish cheeks in the long, delight
full, truant summer afternoons; with
the whistle of a bob-white over in the
stUbble field beyond the COW pasture
with the murmur Of the brook thai
went singing over the white pebbles
at the foot of the orchard hill with
the music of the bees humming and
5Uzing about the sweet red clover
tops; bring them to me even with the
old well-remembered and peculiarly
pIngent flavor of the buggy whip
which frequently seasoned those
appIes-because no boy could always
get over the fence in time-I told him
1 would gladly, gladly, gladly give
him $50 for just one apple.
But the boy looked at me with a
aameless fear, and backed eff down
the aisle of the car, and touched the
conductor on the elbow and said:
BILL Say, Bill WAC has change
of the lunatic on the wood boxq
All dearly beloved, there is no lun.
acy about it. We know now, and
some day the boy will know, that ap
pies are not so good as they used to
oe twenty five years ago. Nothing
rs so good to us. in fact The apples