s. They look just like
the apples up in Saco, Maine. Lord's sakes, how I wish I was there!"

The boy signified his willingness to make the bargain, but he wanted to
give a sporting color to the transaction. "Right or left?" he asked,
his hands held behind his back.

"Left, of course," answered the yokel.

"'Ain't I always been that?"

The boy handed over the apple, received the promised nickel in return,
and departed with a joyous whoop. The young countryman held up the
apple and looked at it sentimentally.

"Now, what under the canopy's that!" he exclaimed. There was a piece of
paper tightly twisted about the stem of the fruit. He unfolded it
carefully, for it could be seen that it bore a written message.

When a man with a complexion like a new red wagon turns pale it means
something. Indiman and I stepped up, for we really thought that he was
going to faint.

"Much obliged, gentlemen. I'm all right now," said the young chap. "But
for the minute I was that struck. Say, gentlemen, you'll think I'm a
liar, but it was my own girl, Miss Mattie Townley, who wrote that there
letter and twisted it around an apple-stem. And she wrote it to me--me,
Ben Day. What do you think of that?"

"This is a world of infinite chance," said Indiman, politely.

"Look for yourself. I don't mind, and neither would Mattie."

Indiman took the little scrawl of paper and I looked over his shoulder.
It read:

"Ben Day, if you're not an altogether born fool, come back to Saco,
Maine. I never meant a word of what I said--you KNOW that. M. T."

"S'pose you'd call it a lovers' quarrel," explained Mr. Ben Day. "I
just piked out of Saco, Maine, like a bear with a sore head, and come
down here to New York. For three months I 'ain't sent sign nor sound to
the home people, but she was bound to catch up with me. And, by jinks!
she just did. Wonder how many other Baldwin pippins are taking the glad
tidings round the country. I'd give a nickel apiece for a million of
'em." An actual tear glistened in the young fellow's eye. It was
impossible not to sympathize, and we both congratulated him heartily.

"Of course, you're going back to Saco at once?" said Indiman.

"If I could get the five-o'clock express there's a through connection
up north. I'd do it, too"--his voice fell suddenly--"only for--"

"Only for what?"

"This," and he held out a small package that he had been carrying. It
was box-shaped and neatly wrapped in light-brown paper. The