st apple that ever
grew! Only a few left!"--and he was actually asking (and getting) four
cents apiece for them.

In some astonishment I drew up to him to see what it could be in the way
of an apple to command such a price and be in such evident demand. They
were truly lovely apples to look at, but noticing that I was still
skeptical as to their exceeding merits, Willis kindly gave me one--by
way of removing all doubts. Truth to say, those doubts were at once
removed.

The Wild Rose Sweeting, indeed, is really worthy of a biography, its
history was so romantic, its fate so sad. Let me try to be its humble
biographer.

As a rule apple-trees that come up wild, bear fruit that is either sour
or else bitter-sweet. All such trees need to be budded, or grafted and
cultivated, to be of value to man. It is only once in a million times
that a really good apple comes up as natural fruit.

The value to the world of such a choice apple may be enormous. The
Baldwin, for example, which first appeared growing wild in a
Massachusetts town, could hardly be reckoned to-day as worth less than a
hundred millions of dollars. We can bud, graft, cultivate and do much
to improve existent apples; but it is only by chance that we propagate a
new one that is really good.

The Wild Rose Sweeting was named by Miss Alice Linderman, a young lady
from Philadelphia, who had come to our northern hill country several
years previously in the vain hope of recovery from advanced pulmonary
disease. She named it from the wild-rose tint on one cheek of the apple.

The tree was discovered by Willis, who kept the secret of it to himself
as long as he could, for his own behoof. He was sufficiently generous to
give some of the apples to Miss Linderman, but he demanded a cent apiece
from others. He even asked four cents apiece after the fame of the
apples spread abroad.

The year after he discovered the tree Willis carried a bushel to the
county fair, and began peddling them at a cent apiece. Nearly every one
who bought an apple came back for more. Willis raised the price to three
and four cents. Presently a gentleman who had bought two came back and
took the last ten in the basket at a dollar!

This fact shows better than any description could what a really luscious
apple it was. There was that in the flavor of it that impelled people to
get more.

The Wild Rose Sweeting more nearly resembled the Sweet Harvey than any
other apple to which I can liken i