St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-09-21
Children's Column.
BROoM-coRN AND APPLES.

@1A1~'
When was little girl, Eastern Ne
braska was new country, and bearing
orchards were very few and far between,
so that apples were as scarce and highly
priced in School District No. 10 as oranges
are now.
They were sometimes bought at a good
round price in the village, IS miles away,
and if one of the children had an apple at
school, the rest of US crowded around and
begged for the core.
By and by two orchards in the district
came into bearing, and then we cared less
for the cores, but were still very hungry
for the apples.
What we got seemed only to whet our
appetites, and if we had not been fairly
good children, think we should have de-
scended upon those apple trees in body,
and devoured the whole crop.
One of the orchards belonged to Uncle
Wise and Aunt Ev, who lived just across
the road from the school-house.
He was our teacher and playmate, and
she was the particular friend of every
sturdy little pioneer in District No. 10.
They had good store of apples in the
cellar and if they could have spared them
they would have enjoyed supplying every
one of US with all we could eat ri ht
along.
But of course you can see that would
never have done. There were about
twenty of US l think, and we should have
made short work of Uncle Wilse's winter
supply.
We used to call on Aunt Ev in squads of
six or eight and sometimes one of the A
C scholars would remark, Seems to me
smell apples p
Most of US knew better than to hint our
wishes so strongly, but even if we didn't
say a word Aunt Ev knew we thought ap-
pies, and she hated ever to deny us.
At last she and Uncle Wilse hit upon
the best kind of plaza plan by which
they could afford to supply 1ll of us, and
which made the apple taste uncommonly
good, too.
1t all came of Uncle Wilse's making
brooms.
He was really a wonderful mantle
best the kindest of teachers, the jolliest
hand at blind mans buff, the luckiest
fruit grower, and, besides all this, first.
class broom maker.
Did you ever see broom corn growing
It looks something like common corn,
but at the top, instead of tassel, is the
plume or brush of which brooms are made
The ends of it are covered thickly with
brown seeds; maybe you have noticed
now and then one still sticking to the
brush of your broom.
In regular factories they have a quick
and easy way to scrape off these seeds by
machinery, but Uncle Wilse had to do il
all by hand. So he proposed to hire al
the children who wished to work at it
and pay them in apples. u
You may be sure we all wished to work
Uncle Wilse spread the broom-corn along
narrow board walk in his backyard, ane
there ives soon long, busy row of US
scraping as if for dear life.
1t was better fun than blind mans buff
We laughed and chartered as little folks
always do, and declared we should moi
play at noon and recess any more while
the broom corn and apples lasted.
We stuck to it pretty well, most of us
As we became more skilful, Uncle Wilst
was obliged to raise the price of his ap'
pies, SO that we should not get his whole
stock.
But he always kept it low enough SO tina
certain slow but very faithful little chal
could at least earn one apple each day.
Whether he and Aunt Ev found oul
work any great help can't say. But the.
gained their main object, which was tt
teach us a good lesson, give us a goot
time, and see that we had apples to eat.
And what with the scarcity of apples
and the strength of our appetites, and thu
special relish we gained by earning them
/ am sure there never was such fruit TO
US before, nor has been since YOUTH
| Comp1n6o,a.