Eve and the Apple

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 14 July 1904, Page 8

Eve and the Apple

LB7 Oven 0 liver. f . 4i EVE and an apple overcame an s9 cestor of mine. He would not ha,n wanted the apple, be said, bat tag Ere. That was exactly my case. j» ' Ere Uvea at No. 53 and lat No. 04 I am not sure where the apple lived bat it was at one of the two. M hong on a high branch over No. SSfs gap den, bnt it fattened on the soil of Na 54. far which I paid rent. it waa Ere, of course, who called bry attention to it. I heard her voio* through, the open window. She bat an attractive voice. , "Oh, look, mother!** aha aried •There is my apple." "Hush, dear! It isn't your apple tiA all. It belongs to the people nest door." . "He fan't people," objected Sm # am a bachelor. j "Anyhow, the apple is .^J "Ie it?" She tossed her head. f& has a graceful way of tossing ha >head. "Then he shan't Lave it. Mr. IssJpOn gave it to me every year." JSpypayton was my predecessor. "Yos he always lent me his ladder tc "aSf* it-" I fait inclined to offer my "*: - ladder there and then, bnt the time, like the apple, was not ripe. As the summer went on the apple grew in size and beauty. Eve watched the apple, and I watched Eve. Bhe was so nice tp watch that I did not offer && the||§rhidden fruit. I reg'anJed it a*fte>ostage for her rsgu"Look at its rosy .cheeks, mother!" she used to say, teasingly. "If it geti much bigger it must drop." She made motions expressing rapture. "Eve, dear," her mother protected, it isn't .yours." "It would be if I had a ladder." Then she would g&e-.a merry little laugh. Bhe has a charming- way oi laughing. The apple still hung on, however, and grew and grew. In the dusk ot •evening Eve tried to.rencb it with a clothes prop—at least it looked like Eve. I knew it was a clothes prop, because she let it drop over my wall, and it smashed three panes of a cucumber frame. Next morning aha happened to be in the garden, so I returned it with grave ceremony. ) "I—l'm afraid it broke something,* ■he apologized. "Not in the least," I assured her. *TH tell Mary Jane not to stand-it up against your wall again, 4 ' she promised mendaciously. After that the apple blushed mow furiously than ever. It was so ripe that it was marvelous hew it held on, I heard her say. She was probably unaware that I had climbed up one night and secured it with fine wire. ■Next she tried knocking tennis balls at It. Of course, she never went within n couple of yards. I picked up nine bar ext morning and restored them to her. "' 'aougbt they were windfalls Imm my apple tree," I said, and she fled indoors. "I believe he was laughing at me," I heard her tell her mother. 'TCow, I jrill have it." "No. no, dear! I forbid you to touch it. It's no use looking like that, Eve. I shall be really cross with you." When I came home that evening the apple waa atfll there, in all its glory, but when it grew dusk I noticed maneuvers with the prop going on once mora. Finally I heard a cry of triumph, and the rustle of her skirts as she ran indoors. Then I went out. I climbed the tree, gathered about S gallon of apples, and sent them fli with a note. "Dear Madam: I trust you will accept a few apples from my tree overhanging your garden, as I notice that there is only one upon your side. "I have, however, a special reason for desiring that one. May I enter your garden to gather It? Yours very truly. "FRANK NEWTON." In a few minutes Sarah Ann returned with Mrs. Parker's thanks, and an assurance that she would be pleased for me to gather the apple whenever I liked. So, after nutting the Cniivu'Ci: mi» * J cur for «• v« re colds, r. b v 1 and apr vpnttvp of '-f "oenonin. It i» ih* favKdri": tcr whonpir.g I cou;hAst s!v;.YB : .'res sad cureßl jN l&eyu* and Boni sell &l

I ladder over the wall, I went round Us : their front door and knocked I was ! shown into a cozy sitting-room. Mrs} : Parker received me very pleasantly, but Miss Eve was rather quiet, as ej young lady should be. ' "You will be surprised at my bothering you about a single apple," I said. "The fact is I want it for some one who has particularly admired it.." "We have noticed," said her mother, with a side glance at Eve, "that it is a singularly fine apple." "An exceptionally fine apple," a agreed. "It would be almost impossible to match it." "I should like to see it when you ! have picked it," Mrs. Parker oon- : fessed. Eve said nothing. She appeared to have become absorbed in a book. "I'll bring it fci at once," I promised. I went out through the French window and ascended the tree. No one was looking, so I gathered enother fine apple from my own side. Whei> I returned Eve had disappeared. "It doesn't look quite so large off the tree," I suggested, placing the spple upon the table. "No," said the mother, examining it critically, "I scarcely think it does; but it is a very fine one." "Perhaps your daughter would like to see it?" "Ye —es." She laughed. "I am afraid it will make her feel rather envious." She rang the bell, and the servant came. "Ask Miss Eve to come for a moment, please." After a few minutes' waiting, during which Mrs. Parker discovered that we had some mutual friends, and asked me to call in there somethues, pretty Eve reappeared, looking gtulV ily defiant. "Mr. Newton wants you to see his apple, Eve, dear. Isn't it a beauty V Eve flushed and gave me » swift glance. "Yes." she said, hesitatingly. She seemd to be studying ths floor ratiur j than the fruit. "It might be a fellow to the .»u* that tempted Eve!" I observed, with a smile. She traced a pattern with her foot. "Adam was also tempted." "By Eve, I believe? I don't faney he wanted the apple much, did he?" She blushed ■' "You could not have a nicer apple than this, anyhow." She looked right at me at" last. Her eyes said quite plainly: "You needn't tell mother." As if I had any such intention! "I am glad you like it," I said, "because I want to give it to you, if I may. I could not help noticing that you admired it." "There, Eve!" said her mother. "I told you that everyone would see that you coveted it." "I—l am sorry," she said, In a subdued little voice. "Please don't say that, or you will ■poil my pleasure in giving it." "Then—l am not sorry." She took it with a laugh. Soon afterward I went, assuring Mrs. Parker that I should soon avail myself of her kind invitation to call. 1 again. I hope they did not hear me I laughing when I got indoors. I The next day was Sunday. In the ' afternoon Eve sat under the shade of my apple tree reading a book. So I strolled out and looked over the wall. "Eve," I remarked, "was turned out •f Paradise for stealing an apple." She looked up and smiled. Then she looked down. "The annual apple on this side has always belonged to Eve," she asserted, pretending to cut the pages of her book. They were cut already. "She might spare a tiny piece for Adam," I suggested. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes. "Adam was better without the apple, you know," she assured me. "Adaro," I declared, "needed no pity »t all." ' She rested her chin on one hand and looked at me inquiringly with her big ejea. I would -put down- how she looked, if rt were possible. It isn't. Mere ordinary charm of feature or coloring is common enough to have words. Beal prettiness is unique, unnamcable; little willful curves of the features, little waves of the hair—and "ways." She is pretty like that. "Adam," she. remarked, "lost Paradise and the apples." "But he had Eve." She studied her shoes, and X seated myself on top of the wall. "You have plenty of apples," she said; "and you are not shut out of Parndi-c." "Then," I replied, promptly, "I will come in." I did. "How do you know this is Paradise?" she asked, demurely. "Eve is here." She looked at me saucily over her book. "Poor Eve was much to be pitied." She simulated a sigh. "Because she lost Paradise?" "No; because she kept Adam." "Did she mind, do you think?" "Well—you see, it was just a very little bit her fault that he ate the apple." "She would have eaten every scrap herself if she had been a modern Eve." She looked up at the desecrated 'jough and laughed. A stray sunbeam lanced in her eyes, like the dazzle of diamonds. "I think she could be persuaded to share it with the modern Adam," she stated. Thereupon she dived under the chair cushion and p •'■ ■■—' it. "Now you have >'■.- dise—and the apple." she trlt' :■•:•- "• "They are nr tli,!.. I said, feelingly, "compared with Evt-.'* p, it Eve—my rJrrnty Httle Evc-tis to No. r>! in :?»• spring. It will -.■.. - any f»ir«!--r " —v'e. nh" -ays, a*>i.ut the apple.- Mad tune. ■