after all it will only skirt round about us,' I said. And as I
thought this I entered the orchard and sat down on my own seat, a little
bench that--now many years ago--the bon papa had placed for me with his
own hands beside my pommier.

"I was so tired and so hot and so unhappy, I sat and cried.

"'I wish I had not said I would go,' I thought. 'Now if I change one will
mock so at me.'

"I leaned my head against the trunk of my tree. I had forgotten about the
storm. Suddenly, more suddenly than I can tell, there came a fearful
flash of lightning--all about me seemed for a moment on fire--then the
dreadful boom of the thunder as if it would shake the earth itself to
pieces, and a tearing crashing sound like none I had ever heard before.
I screamed and threw myself on the ground, covering my eyes. For a moment
I thought I was killed--that a punishment had come to me for my
disobedience. 'Oh! I will not go away. I will do what you all wish,' I
called out, as if my parents could hear me. 'Bon papa, forgive me. Thy
little girl wishes no longer to leave thee;' but no one answered, and I
lay there in terror. Gradually I grew calmer--after that fearful crash
the thunder claps seemed to grow less violent. I looked up at last. What
did I see? The tree next to my pommier--the one but a yard or two from my
bench--stood black and charred as if the burning hand of a great giant
had grasped it; already some of its branches strewed the ground. And my
pommier had not altogether escaped; one branch had been struck--the very
branch on the sunny side from which bon papa had picked the apple, as he
afterwards showed me! That my life had been spared was little less than a
miracle." Marie paused....

[Illustration: UNDER THE APPLE-TREE.]

"I left the orchard, my little young ladies and young Monsieur," she went
on after a moment or two, "a very different girl from the one that had
entered it. I went straight to the house, and confessed all--my naughty
intention of leaving them all, my discontent and pride, and all my bad
feelings. And they forgave me--the good people--they forgave me all, and
bon papa took me in his arms and blessed me, and I promised him not to
leave him while he lived. Nor did I--it was not so long--he died the next
year, the dear old man! What would my feelings have been had I been away
in Paris?"

Old as she was, Marie stopped to wipe away a tear. "It is nearly sixty
years ago, yet still the tears come when I think