The Huttig news., 1912-05-04
FORBIDDEN
 FRUIT @

=.
 The apples has come" Hilda an nounced, as she opened the front door to Mrs. Nickells ring.
 "Apples?" echoed Mrs Nickell, paus ing in the act of laying down her pack ages What apples? ?"
 The apples explained Hilda, com prehensively. They are ill the eel lar already and he opened them and they are very good ate one"
 "Tlilda," said Mrs. Nickell, sternly s'who is he and what apples did he open and what on earth are you talk ing about"
 flilda bestowed upon her employer a plying look and checked off the nouns on her red fingers "The ex press wagon man, he brought bar rel of apples this afternoon and put them downstairs and took the cover off because l asked him. He was a very nice man. The apples are red" :"
 It seemed that this was as complete and detailed an account of the barrel of apples as the Nickell family was destined to obtain from any source When Nickell came home from work the family gathered around the mys terious barrel and considered it.
 There was on it no mark or tag and the broken boards of the cover Hilda had tidily thrown into the fur nace when the expressman took them off. She did not know what express company the man worked for, but she explained in detail that the man had q black mustache and handsome cor duroy trousers. Meanwhile the apples stared them in the face.
 Say, they gre good!" said Nickell when he had bitten into one. They remind me of my boyhood days!"
 Richard" reconstructed his wife I've shouldn't eat them. They aren't ours!'
 Well. we've got 'em, haven't we?" demanded Nickell, taking another We didn't knock down anyone and take the barrel away from him by main force, did we? These apples were thrust upon us against our will and l intend to have revenge on some body Besides, they're taking up storage room ,
 In day or so Mrs. Nickell grew used to the presence of the barrel of apples and, the mystery remaining unsolved she deserted the paths of rectitude and joined her husband and Hilda in their depredations. The Nickell family had apples baked for breakfast and stewed for lunch and made into pies and buildings for din ner, and feasted off them at mid night. They really were particularly juicy. toothsome apples. Nickell had gone over all the people he knew in the country and had definitely de- cided that not one of them would loos- en up sufficiently to present him with a barrel of fine fruit. Besides most of them grew potatoes instead of ap- ples. It was very odd.
 Nearly two weeks after the arrival of the barrel the woman next door called
 Isn't 1t funny how things get lost ?" she remarked to Mrs Nickell as she fastened her furs to go. We ordered barrel of apples from the farm near our summer cottage and the farmer insists that he shipped them nearly three weeks ago and we haven't got them yeti And he has our money I'd give a good deal to know where that barrel is! Have you got a head ache, Mrs. Nickell? Your face Is so flushed!"
 T can tell you where that barrel is.' her hostess said, when she got her breath. Tt is down in our cellar this minute and nearly half the apples are eaten up!"
 It. took Mrs. Nickells some time to recover from the embarrassed gloom into which this little episode plunged them Though the family conversa- ton was tactfully steered away from such topics as apples and orchards, and though everybody developed sudden preference for oranges and dates and grapefruit, apples by sheer force of repression ruled in the minds of all of them. The woman next door was a disagreeable person and she had accepted Nickells liberal concili- atory check for fruit eaten with an air of righteous >condescension and disapproval that was hard to bear.
 It was probably some occult connec.