t. The flavor was like that of the
Sweet Harvey thrice refined, perhaps rather more like the August or Pear
Sweeting; and it melted on the palate like a spoonful of ice-cream.

It will not seem strange to those who know something of the "apple-belt"
of New England that apple-trees, even good ones, should be discovered
growing wild in back pastures and secluded openings in the woods.

Oxford County, Maine, abounds in wild apple-trees. By looking about a
little, the farmer there can readily pick up enough young trees, growing
wild, to set an orchard. They spring up everywhere. For this is one of
the world's natural apple regions. North and northeast of the Old
Squire's farm rose wooded hills; and extending back among them was a
valley, down which ran a brook, abounding in trout-holes at the foot of
ledges and large rocks.

At one time the land here was cleared, but being stony and rough it had
been used for pasture, and was partly overgrown with bushes. There were
thousands of young wild apple-trees here, scrubby and thorny, where
cattle had browsed them.

The boys often went fishing in this brook, spring, summer and fall. Far
up the valley, at a point where the brook flowed over a ledge, there was
a well-known hole. Willis Murch was fishing here one afternoon in the
latter part of August, when he saw a red squirrel carrying an apple in
its mouth by the stem, and coming out from some thick young hemlocks
that grew along the west bank of the brook. He was sitting so still that
the squirrel ran close up to him; but when he suddenly thrust out his
hand, the animal dropped the apple and scudded away with a shrill
_chicker_.

The apple rolled close to Willis's feet, and he picked it up. Apples
were common enough, but this one looked so good that he rubbed it on his
sleeve and bit it. Then his eyes opened in surprise, for this was no
sour cider-apple, but far and away the best apple he had ever tasted.

"It must grow near here," he said to himself, looking curiously around.
"That squirrel didn't bring it far. The stem is fresh, too. He has just
gnawed it off the tree."

Thereupon Willis began searching. He crept into the hemlocks on hands
and knees. Presently he came upon several other gnawed apples; but even
with this clue, he was half an hour finding the tree. There were four
or five huge rocks back from the brook among the thick hemlocks. At last
he crawled in past two of these that stood close together, and came upon