Year: 1876

all thought that was too little; bu
Will seemed satisfied. He laughed a
our expressions of sympathy, and ap
peared rather amused than otherwise


About the middle of March, Latham
and another man suddenly made theil
appearance in the neighborhood. They
brought back the black fox skin, anC
inquired for Will. He had gone away
on a visit to an adjoining county. La
than was in a fearful passion, ant
used some very severe and emphatic
language.


1t appeared that at the Boston whole
sale fur-house, where Latham sold his
furs, they had made discovery. The
skin which Latham had bought OF
VIII was not that of black fox, but
of a common red fox, blackened with
some kind of dye!


Latham threatened to have Will ar.
rested and sent to jail But as he
could not ascertain where the boy had
gone, he went away, after staying
about town a number of days.
Nothing further was ever done about
the fraud.


The story somehow got into Boston
paper, and was copied far and wide as
a rare piece of comical roguery.


l am ashamed to say that the most
of us boys felt that Will had done a
smart thing. We so heartily deteSted
Latham that we saw no wrong in ex-
ulting over the fact that he had found
his match, and been cheated. Every
body was laughing about what they
called "Wills sharp trade" No one
called it by its right name, tra,td.


Because Latham was a rascal, peo-
pie seemed to argue that it was quite
right for Will to be swindler.


AS now look at it, enlightened by
subsequent events, this criminal act
was one Of the worst things that could
have happened to Will.


He came out of the transaction, in
the estimation of'the thoughtless and
| the bad, a shrewd and clever fellow;
and the cheating was so much laughed
at in the county, and so generally
talked about in the newspapers, that
he became in his own estimation quite
hero.


1t gave him a certain notoriety as
"sharp boy" and the idea that such
"sharpness" was rather commended
than censured by the people.


The method of the swindle was a
very simple one. He caught a red fox,
and colored the fur with dye, such
as some young men use for their
whiskers. The whole story came out
bit by bit.


On the farm owned by the writer's
grandfather, there was natural
curiosity in the shape of an appletree.
1t grew few rods below the house,
just inside the stone wall which fenced
the road.


1t was a very thrifty, fine-looking
tree, and bore large apples, striped
golden-yellow and red. They were, |
think, the most beautiful apples that l
ever saw.


But of all ill-havored, sour, bitter
fruit l ever tasted, those apples were
the most disagreeable. They left the
worst flavor in the mouth of any fruit
ever attempted to eat.


speak of them as natural curl
osity, for, as rule, beautiful apples
are finely favored. By way of point
ing moral, grandfather once painted
the word Hypocrite on a shingle and
nailed it to the trunk of this tree,
where it would meet the eyes of us
children.


First and last, we had a great deal
of sport from that tree. Boys, and
sometimes men, unacquainted with
the apples, would stop in passing along
the road, and seeing thesground on the
other side of the wall covered with
fne-looking fruit, would jump over
and take some.


l should, perhaps, remark that ap-
propriating pocketful of apples for
ones own eating was not deemed
stealing in that section of the coun-
try.


Deceived by the luscious aspect of
the apples, the stranger would open
wide his jaws, take generous bite,
chew once, sometimes twice, then
suddenly pause.


The comical change that would
come over his face was very amusing
to any one who saw it. Indignant
spittings and a smashing of the apple
against the trunk of the tree were gen.
orally sure to follow, accompanied by
uncomplimentary eXclamations. The
deluded boy would then sneak over
the wall, walk away, and never look
back. 1t seemed all at once to occur
to him that he had been stealing.
About year and a half after the
"black fox" affair, Will Dover came
one day to the orchard while we were
gathering apples. He asked what we
would take for the apples on the "old
hypocrite" tree.


We thought at first that he was jok-
ing, for he knew the flavor of the
apples.


Finding he really wanted them,
grandfather told him to stake them
and welcome.


The next day, Will came with oxen
and cart, and gathered quite a number
of bushels of these apples. We could
not find out what he intended to do
with them, but concluded he had some
sharp game in view.


This was about a week before the
county fair, such as is held each year
in the autumn in many of the asri-
cultural counties of New England.


With us the fair was one of the
great events of the year. All the boys
made point of being there two days.
and if possible every day while it was
held.


One of the first objects that met the
eyes of my cousin George and myself,
on entering the fairgrounds, was Will
selling apples alta stand built of bright
new hemlock boards.


1t needed but glance to enable us
to identify the apples. They looked