**>/*
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 CAUK.
 
 OH, MARY, BE CAREFUL! 
 
 BY GEORGE WESTON 
 
 7 DELIGHTFUL ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. M. CROSBY 
 
 $1.00 net 
 
 "Frivolously joyful. More joyful moments than 
 belong to a single story." The New York World. 
 
 " Rollicking, amusing tale." Springfield Homestead. 
 
 Uniform in Style and Character 
 with "Oh, Mary, Be Careful" 
 
 THE ROSE-GARDEN HUSBAND 
 
 BY MARGARET WIDDEMER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY WALTER BIGGS 
 
 ^i.oo net 
 
 " One loves to read it, then pass it on to others." 
 
 Dixie Home Magazine. 
 
 "A sparkling, rippling little tale." Net* York Times.
 
 " OH, NEIL, i CAN'T ! TOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ! " 
 
 Page 90
 
 THE 
 
 APPLE-TREE 
 GIRL 
 
 THE STORY OF LITTLE MISS 
 MOSES, WHO LED HERSELF 
 INTO THE PROMISED LAND 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE WESTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "OH, MART, BH CAREFUL!" ETC. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. R. GRUGER 
 
 PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1918
 
 COPTKIGHT, 1917, BT GEORGE WE8TOX 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918, BT J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHED FEBRUARY, 1918 
 
 PRINTED BT J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, U. B. A.
 
 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 DEDICATED TO MY MOTHER 
 0. W. 
 
 2133529
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "On, NEIL, I CAN'T! You DON'T UNDERSTAND!" 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 SHE GAZED UPON HER PROFILE FOR THE FIRST 
 TIME IN HER LIFE GAZED UPON IT IN SILENCE 23 
 
 "WELL, CHARLOTTE'S GONE AND FELL IN LOVE 
 WITH HIM!" 37 
 
 WHEN IT WAS OVER CHARLOTTE KNEW THAT THE 
 MARTIN CREAMERY COMPANY HAD GONE INTO 
 BANKRUPTCY 53 
 
 "!'M GLAD HE'S GETTING ON so WELL," SAID CHAR- 
 LOTTE, POLITELY 73 
 
 LADY SALISBURY'S CRITICAL EYE WAS FOLLOWING 
 HER LIKE A SEARCHLIGHT . 107
 
 THE 
 APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SHE was such an old-fashioned little 
 thing ! 
 
 "And ever likely to be old-fashioned," 
 said Aunt Hepzibah, " born up here at 
 Marlin Mills and raised, as a body might 
 say, right in the shadow of Micah's apple 
 tree!" 
 
 I smiled at Aunt Hepzibah then ; but 
 thinking it over now, I begin to see that 
 the wonderful things which happened 
 to Charlotte Marlin might never have 
 taken place if it hadn't been for the 
 history of Marlin Mills and the story of 
 Micah's apple tree. 
 
 In its day Marlin Mills had been one 
 of the prettiest and happiest of villages. 
 Even now it has an avenue of elms by 
 9
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the side of the river, which is worth 
 going many a mile to see. History tells 
 us that Lafayette once walked beneath 
 those elms and talked with Washing- 
 ton. Five years before that Nathan 
 Hale walked under them, too, in the 
 winter when he taught the school at 
 Marlin Mills. Yes, and many a beau 
 and many a belle enjoyed their shade in 
 the days when gentlemen powdered 
 their hair and wore lace cuffs, and the 
 ladies dressed themselves in panniers 
 and danced the minuet. 
 
 Perhaps at night, when the mists arise 
 from the river and wreathe themselves 
 among the elms, these couples walk 
 again, re-living hours so happy that they 
 wish to make them immortal. For my- 
 self, I know if I were a ghost I would 
 like nothing better than to walk under 
 the old Marlin elms with the spirit of 
 one I had loved, and where the moon 
 shone through the trees to give my part- 
 ner a stately bow and dance the minuet. 
 10
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 And the beauty of it is, no living soul 
 would be likely to interrupt us, for the 
 history of Marlin Mills is nearly fin- 
 ished ; its houses are falling in ruins, and 
 it won't be many years now before the 
 last of the Old Guard will either move 
 or (with greater dignity) be moved 
 away. 
 
 To the east of the village is a hill, 
 flat-topped and stony, and on the top of 
 this hill, overlooking the village below, 
 stands the Marlin farm and homestead 
 the place where my heroine was born. 
 
 Charlotte, my heroine, was six years 
 old when she heard the story of Micah's 
 apple tree, and I will tell it to you 
 exactly as it was told to her. 
 
 Aunt Hepzibah was out at the time, 
 and Ma'm Bazin was ironing in the 
 kitchen. Ma'm Bazin was their hired 
 girl a French-Canadienne of about 
 fifty, enormously fat, full of sentiment 
 and blessed with the gift of tongues. 
 That afternoon Charlotte had gone into 
 11
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the kitchen holding her hands behind 
 her. She watched Ma'm Bazin for a 
 time in her old-fashioned way and then, 
 holding out her hands, she said: " Look! 
 Why do they call these Micah's 
 apples?" 
 
 She had in her hand two apples. 
 They were of a pale I had almost said 
 a sad color ; but here and there on the 
 skin were small, raised spots of the shape 
 and color of red currants. 
 
 "Hush!" cautioned Ma'm Bazin. 
 She tiptoed to the hall door, enormously 
 fat but full of sentiment, and then she 
 made sure that no one was in the yard. 
 As I have said, Charlotte was six years 
 old, and you can imagine how she was 
 impressed by "these maneuvers. 
 
 " Nearly two hundred years ago," be- 
 gan Ma'm Bazin, " on this very farm, 
 lived a farmer named Sowers and his 
 four sons. They were lazy fellows, who 
 do nothing but sit around and complain 
 that a honest man he cannot prosper 
 
 12
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 any more. The only work they do is to 
 plant an orchard, being fond of the 
 cider, and in the middle of the orchard 
 there is one tree a bittersweet bear- 
 ing very fine apples which everyone ad- 
 mires. It is a pale apple and of such 
 peculiar flavor that when the frost she 
 has come the neighbors drop in to say the 
 good word, and always they stroll in the 
 orchard to fill their pockets from the 
 bittersweet tree. 
 
 " As the years go on, Meester Sowers 
 and his four sons drink more and more 
 of the cider and get more and more into 
 debt, till one day the sheriff rap-a-rap- 
 rap on this very door and say, if the 
 taxes are not paid by the first of the year 
 the place will be sold and they thrown 
 out in the cold, cold world, lamenting. 
 Whereat they look at each other and cry 
 in a rage that the honest man he can- 
 not prosper any more. 
 
 " The next day is Christmas Eve, and 
 just after dark another visitor comes 
 
 13
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 rap-a-rap-rap on the door. He has a 
 pack on his back and they see it is 
 Micah, the peddler, who pass' that way 
 every winter. In those days, my dear, 
 peddlers are well known for the money 
 they carry, because the world she is poor 
 and honest, and the banks have not yet 
 come. 
 
 " Micah asks if he can stay for the 
 night, and if nobody ever sees him again, 
 nobody knows and nobody cares. For 
 a peddler he is here to-day and gone to- 
 morrow. It is only known that a few 
 days later Meester Sowers pays his tax 
 and other debts, and no one notices that 
 there is one spot in the orchard where 
 he and his sons they will never cast their 
 eye. 
 
 " The months they come and the 
 months they go, till the frost she falls 
 again. Then the neighbors drop in to 
 say the good word and stroll in the 
 orchard to fill their pockets from the 
 bittersweet tree. But presently they 
 
 14
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 return with the full gallop and a visage 
 white. * Look ! ' they cry. ' These ap- 
 ples, so pale before, are covered with 
 spots like blood ! ' 
 
 " What Meester Sowers say then I 
 do not know, but the neighbors run back 
 to the tree with shovels and picks. There 
 in his grave at last they find poor Micah, 
 and always after that it is called Micah's 
 tree and Micah's apples, and always 
 after that these spots appear as a wit- 
 ness that the sin which is buried at the 
 foot of a tree it shall make itself known 
 in the fruit." 
 
 It is an old wives' tale, of course, like 
 the stories of fairies and witchcraft which 
 you heard when you were a child and 
 which have been told to children since 
 time immemorial, yet it's a tale which is 
 believed more than doubted throughout 
 our part of Eastern Connecticut. So if 
 it had its effect on Charlotte's mind, es- 
 pecially when she looked out of her 
 window and gazed at Micah's tree, I 
 
 15
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 don't think you can greatly blame her, 
 or wonder if it helped to make her more 
 old-fashioned than ever. 
 
 Such was the atmosphere in which 
 she grew up. 
 
 Below the farm was Marlin Mills, its 
 houses falling in, and columbines and 
 ragged robins growing among the ruins 
 of the dam. A handful of children still 
 attended the school where Nathan Hale 
 once taught ; but every year the number 
 decreased, and every year a new teacher 
 had to be found to brave the increasing 
 loneliness. And when Charlotte re- 
 turned home from school and walked 
 past the orchard, Micah's tree was wait- 
 ing to remind her why old houses creak 
 at night and why the wind howls down 
 the chimney at times with such a note. 
 And when she went in the house there 
 was her father, old Moses Marlin, a 
 grim, gaunt man who had never quite 
 forgiven her because she wasn't a boy. 
 
 There are times, indeed, when I, too, 
 
 16
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 have wished that she had been a boy, be- 
 cause she would probably have made a 
 great inventor, or an even greater poet, 
 brought up in such an incomparable en- 
 vironment. Yet on second thoughts I 
 am always glad that she was a girl, be- 
 cause inventors and poets we have in 
 plenty, but never before, I believe, did 
 a girl set out on such a scale as Charlotte 
 did to lead herself, a little Miss Moses, 
 into the Promised Land. 
 
 As soon as she had mastered her 
 Third Reader she gradually developed 
 into a bookworm, one of the most in- 
 dustrious little bookworms imaginable. 
 
 " She was ten years old then," said 
 Aunt Hepzibah, " a spindly young 'un 
 with her hair in two pigtails, but bright 
 as a button, even if she was so quiet. 
 'Pears to me there were years when I 
 never see her unless she had a book in 
 her hand. She seemed to live and eat 
 and sleep with the people she read about. 
 Times there'd be tears in her eyes, and 
 
 2 17
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 times she'd burst out laughing. ' What's 
 the matter now? ' I'd ask her. ' Oh, it's 
 so funny! ' she'd say, and curl up 'round 
 the book again as if she'd never let go." 
 It was up at the old Marlin farm 
 where Aunt Hepzibah told me these 
 things, and, after I had gathered a few 
 of Micah's apples, she let me look at the 
 books which Charlotte had read. There 
 was a set of Longfellow, and one of 
 Dickens, and Hawthorne was there be- 
 tween Charles Reade and the Waverley 
 Novels good, old-fashioned sets of that 
 half-morocco binding in which our 
 grandfathers seemed to take such deep 
 delight. It didn't require much imagi- 
 nation to picture Charlotte " curled up " 
 in her chair by the window, laughing 
 over Sam Weller, or her eyes filling with, 
 tears as she followed the fortunes of 
 Evangeline. And when the twilight 
 came I think we can both imagine her 
 laying her book aside and looking out of 
 the window at Micah's tree . . . 
 
 18
 
 and the village below . . . and the 
 sunset over the far-off hills . . . 
 dreaming the dreams which you used to 
 dream when you were a child, and all 
 unconsciously preparing herself for the 
 quest of the Promised Land. 
 
 In short, if you had searched the 
 country over it is doubtful if you could 
 have found a scene or a girl more 
 conducive to the growth of Romance. 
 And as she grew older, and her dresses 
 grew longer, and her straight lines and 
 angles began to turn into tender young 
 curves, she often found herself dream- 
 ing the Golden Dream of how the prince 
 would presently come to court her. 
 
 Charlotte finished school in her 
 fifteenth year, the one bright star in a 
 small, dim lot of j ewels. Twelve months 
 before her father had taken to his bed 
 and died in the same grim way he had 
 lived, knowing himself the last of the 
 Marlins and never quite forgiving her 
 because she wasn't a boy. It was nearly 
 
 19
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 a year before they found his will, and 
 then it was discovered that he had left 
 Charlotte the farm, and ten thousand 
 dollars in the bonds of a creamery com- 
 pany which he had formed in the hope 
 of restoring to the village some measure 
 of its past prosperity. After a family 
 council following the reading of the will, 
 it was decided that Charlotte should con- 
 tinue her education by going to the Pen- 
 field High School, Penfield being the 
 nearest town and Aunt Grace living 
 there with a daughter of Charlotte's age, 
 who was also going to start at the high 
 school that same year. 
 
 ' The change will do her good, poor 
 child! " said Aunt Harriet, a stout lady 
 with a critical eye and a deep voice. 
 
 Charlotte was out in the hall, quietly 
 dusting a picture which Aunt Grace 
 was going to take away with her, but 
 her relations didn't dream that she was 
 so close at hand. 
 
 " She's a nice child," said Uncle Ezra. 
 20
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " But," said Aunt Grace, " so old- 
 fashioned! " 
 
 " She's a loving little thing! " warmly 
 cried Aunt Hepzibah. " You've no idea 
 how I shall miss her when she's gone." 
 
 Hearing that from her station in the 
 hall Charlotte felt her heart go out to 
 Aunt Hepzibah, and she was just on the 
 point of going in to her complimentary 
 relations when they started talking 
 again. 
 
 "She's a regular little old maid!" 
 said Uncle Ezra. 
 
 " Well, to tell you the truth, I think 
 it's pretty lucky she's got that money," 
 said Aunt Grace. 
 
 " Just what I've been thinking poor 
 child!" said Aunt Harriet; and, drop- 
 ping her voice to its deepest note, she 
 added: " Isn't she homely! "
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 UP to that moment it is doubtful if 
 Charlotte had ever felt the least misgiv- 
 ing about her personal appearance ; but, 
 as you will realize, she had reached the 
 age where such things count, and when 
 she looked at herself in the mirror that 
 night she stared very solemnly indeed. 
 
 A healthy young face stared at her 
 a face lit up by deeply tender eyes, ex- 
 pressive eyebrows and rosy cheeks. And 
 if she had the Marlin nose, which was 
 inclined to be beaky, and the Marlin 
 chin, which was inclined to be sensitive, 
 for my part I think they added character 
 to her face, and, if I had been in Char- 
 lotte's place, I wouldn't have minded 
 them one bit. 
 
 " I don't see what's the matter," she 
 thought, still staring at herself. " I 
 look the same as I always do."
 
 SHE GAZED UPON HER PROFILE FOR THE FIRST TIME 
 IN HER LIFE GAZED UPON IT IN SILENCE
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 But that morning she had watched 
 Aunt Grace arrange her hair with the 
 aid of two mirrors, and it gave her an 
 idea. She ran down to the kitchen, 
 where a little square mirror hung over 
 the sink. This she took to her room, 
 and then, standing sideways in front of 
 her dresser, she gazed upon her profile 
 for the first time in her life gazed upon 
 it in silence, as though she were scrutiniz- 
 ing a stranger who had come to live with 
 her and whom she didn't know whether 
 she was going to like or not. 
 
 " It's my nose," she finally told her- 
 self in a voice that had a little break in 
 it. " And my chin.'* 
 
 Poor Charlotte ! Up till then, you see, 
 she had taken her beauty for granted, 
 the same as she had taken the length of 
 her hair and the brightness of her eyes ; 
 and then suddenly to find that her nose 
 was beaky like her father's had been, 
 that her chin was inclined to favor his 
 too, and that a supposedly loving aunt 
 
 23
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 could stare around a room full of rela- 
 tions and whisper " Isn't she homely? " 
 
 For a long time she lay amid the ruins 
 of her dreams, staring up into the dark, 
 and with such a heavy feeling in her 
 tender, young breast! As long as she 
 could remember she had lived in a land 
 of romance where all the men were hand- 
 some and all the maids were fair; and 
 when she had dreamed of the future, as 
 girls have dreamed since time imme- 
 morial, she had always imagined her 
 prince riding along under the old Mar- 
 lin elms, meeting her and falling in love 
 with her at sight suddenly stopping, 
 his hand upon his heart because she was 
 so young and sweet and beautiful! 
 
 " And wouldn't it be awful now," she 
 thought, almost sitting up in bed with 
 the horror of it, " if no man ever looked 
 at me because I'm homely, and if I had 
 to live and die a lonely old maid! " 
 
 Next morning Aunt Hepzibah came 
 up to help her pack, for it had been de- 
 
 24
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 tided that she should go to Penfield with 
 her Aunt Grace. 
 
 Charlotte was very quiet for a time. 
 " Oh, Aunt Hepzy," she said at last, 
 " have you ever seen my cousin in Pen- 
 field, my cousin Margaret? " 
 
 " Twice," nodded Aunt Hepzibah. 
 " Why? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. Is she pretty? " 
 
 " Pretty as paint," said Aunt Hep- 
 zibah promptly. ' Why? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know. I was wonder- 
 ing; that's all." 
 
 " Well, you'll see her soon enough. 
 Prettiest girl in Penfield; everybody 
 says so. Alms reminds me of Little 
 Eva in * Uncle Tom's Cabin ' and as 
 false as a wagonload of monkeys," con- 
 cluded Aunt Hepzibah, with that im- 
 partiality of opinion which is relation- 
 ship's most radiant star. 
 
 " * False as a wagonload of mon- 
 keys ' ? Why Aunt Hepzy ! " 
 
 " Well, I dunno as I ought to have 
 
 25
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 said that. She may have changed since 
 I saw her last. Anyhow, you'll see her 
 soon enough ; and after you've been there 
 a month or two you write and tell me 
 what you think." 
 
 As you can imagine from that, when 
 Mr. Briggs' surrey reached Penfield 
 that afternoon and turned down Maple 
 Avenue, Charlotte was all eyes to see, 
 all perceptions to perceive; and when 
 Aunt Grace said " That's our house, 
 next to where the man is raking leaves, 
 and I declare! there's Margaret 
 standing on the lawn," Charlotte felt as 
 excited as though she were witnessing 
 her first play. Margaret was a blonde 
 with a complexion like the bloom on an 
 Elberta peach, and features which would 
 have reminded you of those bisque shep- 
 herdesses with which our grandmothers 
 used to adorn their mantel shelves. Al- 
 though both her parents were average 
 folks, Margaret's figure and attitudes 
 and manner were marked with a delicate 
 
 26
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 grace, and her expression, especially 
 when a stranger turned to look at her, 
 had the supernal innocence which is gen- 
 erally associated with that picture of the 
 little choir boy who is singing his Christ- 
 mas carol in a beam of light. But all 
 her life her parents, helped by the people 
 of Penfield, had unconsciously conspired 
 to spoil her, and as you've probably 
 guessed from what Aunt Hepzibah said, 
 they hadn't labored in vain. 
 
 From the first hour of Charlotte's 
 arrival it seemed to be her part to act as 
 a foil for her cousin's prettiness. And 
 how Margaret enjoyed it! If you were 
 to hear all the ingenious little tricks she 
 did to shine at Charlotte's expense it 
 would make it too long a chapter. Be- 
 sides, you have probably seen the way 
 such things are done, for they seem to 
 be a part of human nature, like criticiz- 
 ing the minister or pretending that one 
 never eats in the kitchen. You will also 
 probably understand that, as time went 
 
 27
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 on, Charlotte found herself thrown 
 more and more upon the resources of her 
 own company. She said little, but she 
 used that old-fashioned head of hers a 
 great deal ; and, having such a criterion 
 of beauty with which to compare herself, 
 it didn't take her long to make up her 
 mind on one important question. 
 
 " I guess Aunt Harriet was right," 
 she sighed one night, looking at her re- 
 flection in the mirror after she had 
 brushed her hair. "I'll never be pretty, 
 or at least I'll never be pretty like 
 Margaret is. Oh, well," and she drew 
 another deep sigh, " if you're not pretty 
 you've got to be smart. So I guess I've 
 just got to be smart! " 
 
 And, whether or not it was nature's 
 compensation, her studies seemed to 
 come natural to her. She studied very 
 hard, for one thing, thinking to herself : 
 " I've got to be smart, or I'm nothing." 
 For another thing, her mind wasn't dis- 
 turbed and distracted by the young male 
 
 28
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 students, because the young male stu- 
 dents left Charlotte severely alone that 
 is, all except one poor boy, and he doesn't 
 count, as you will very soon see. 
 
 Perhaps, too, if you reverse these 
 reasons, you will know why Margaret 
 was backward in her studies. Her domi- 
 nant thought wasn't " How much can I 
 learn? " but " How pretty I am! " And 
 even if she had wished to study, the 
 young men of Penfield would have made 
 it difficult, so strong was the competition 
 to walk home with her, to take her out 
 riding, or to call in the evening and sing 
 ballads of such a sentimental quaver that 
 they quite harrowed the feelings of Char- 
 lotte who was studying upstairs Char- 
 lotte was already among the leaders of 
 her class, who had made up her mind to 
 stand at the head or know the reason why. 
 
 " Great silly things ! " she thought one 
 night. " You'd think they'd have more 
 sense. As if a girl doesn't amount to 
 anything unless she's beautiful!" 
 
 29
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 A sense of injustice began to rankle 
 in her, that sense of injustice which was 
 ultimately to lead her to her Three Great 
 Sums. 
 
 " I guess the books are most to 
 blame," she thought. " They always 
 make their heroines beautiful." Frown- 
 ing a little she ran over a list of the char- 
 acters that she could remember. " Dora 
 Spenlow was awfully pretty," she 
 thought, her nose curling a little. " And 
 so was Agnes, and She, and Juliet, and 
 Little Dorrit and Little Nell and Lucy 
 Ashton and Ethel Newcome yes, and 
 all the others, too." 
 
 For a moment she felt a challenge in 
 the situation, and her heart warmed 
 within her, as hearts have warmed since 
 time immemorial at the prospect of lead- 
 ing a forlorn hope against a whole world 
 in arms. 
 
 " I don't see why heroines have to be 
 so terribly pretty," she thought. " I 
 don't believe it's anything but a silly 
 so
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 custom. Probably the minstrels started 
 it. It's the same as if every gentleman 
 still had to go around in armor, and 
 every old woman was a witch. Why, the 
 way the books have it, Margaret's the 
 only girl in Penfield who could ever be a 
 heroine, and I don't believe there's a girl 
 in town no, not one! who wouldn't 
 make a better heroine than she ! " 
 
 Which was as far as she got just then ; 
 but after that, whenever Charlotte read 
 a short story or a book and came to the 
 author's description of his heroine, and 
 read something like this : " I would like 
 to describe the beauty of Lois Mallory, 
 but words fail me," or " Her features 
 were crisply and delicately chiseled, as 
 though by a master sculptor," or " She 
 had only to enter a room to eclipse 
 everybody there " whenever Charlotte 
 came to a passage like that, her beaky 
 little nose curled in a most refreshing 
 manner and she cried to herself, " Oh, 
 fudge ! " As you will understand, " Oh, 
 
 31
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 fudge! " was one of the things which she 
 had learned at high school ; and, as time 
 went on, other signs of a growing sense 
 of humor began to manifest themselves 
 in our heroine. But on the whole, Char- 
 lotte remained much the same old- 
 fashioned girl who had been born at 
 Marlin Mills and raised, as a body might 
 say, under the shadow of Micah's apple 
 tree. She read a great deal, dreamed a 
 great deal, and studied so hard that if 
 you could have seen her bending over 
 her books she would have reminded you 
 of nothing so much as a young Minerva 
 preparing to take her rightful place with 
 the other elect upon Olympus. 
 
 " If people could only go on learning 
 as long as they lived," she thought one 
 day as she closed her algebra, " wouldn't 
 they be able to do some wonderful 
 sums ! " 
 
 That started her thinking she wasn't 
 old-fashioned for nothing and pres- 
 ently she continued : " Nearly every- 
 
 32
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 thing you do is a sort of sum. If you 
 do it right you get the proper answer, 
 and if you do it wrong you fail. Yes, 
 when you look at it that way, I guess a 
 person's whole life is a sort of sum, but 
 you have to die to know the answer. 
 Oh, if I could only think of a sum that 
 would make me famous all over the 
 world!" 
 
 After that, whenever Charlotte made 
 up her mind to do anything difficult, she 
 would say, "I'm going to set myself a 
 sum," and if it was hard to do, such as 
 taking no notice of Margaret's mean- 
 ness, or memorizing Himmel und Erde 
 in her German reader, she would say to 
 herself: " I can do it I can do it if I'm 
 smart ! " And she always did it, because 
 as she always solemnly told herself: 
 "I've got to be smart, or I'm nothing." 
 
 So it isn't surprising that, at the end 
 of her freshman year, she stood at the 
 head of her class, while Margaret hov- 
 ered perilously near the foot. This situa- 
 
 3 S3
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 tion wasn't at all pleasing to the pretty 
 cousin. 
 
 " Mother," she said one afternoon, 
 " what do you suppose is the matter with 
 Charlotte?" 
 
 Aunt Grace looked at her niece as 
 though she were ready for anything, and 
 then she turned to her daughter in 
 puzzled surprise. " Nothing that I can 
 see," she said. "Why?" 
 
 " That's what I'd like to know," said 
 Margaret, tossing her pretty head. " I 
 don't know whether it's her nose, or 
 whether she's studying too hard, but no- 
 body else in the whole school looks like 
 her. The other girls are beginning to 
 notice it, too, and my friends are speak- 
 ing to me about it. Perhaps that's why 
 nobody ever walks home with her; I 
 don't know." 
 
 An angry answer prickled on Char- 
 lotte's tongue, but she bit it back, this 
 being one of the difficult sums which she 
 had set herself to do. " No, sir! " she 
 
 34
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 thought, cocking her beaky little nose. 
 " She can be mean if she wants to, but 
 she isn't going to make me mean! " 
 
 Which was partly due to that epic 
 line of Ma'm Bazin's which often came 
 to her memory when she thought of the 
 spots on Micah's apples : " The sin which 
 is buried at the foot of the tree, it shall 
 make itself known in the fruit." So, in- 
 stead of losing her temper, Charlotte 
 simply gave her cousin a particularly 
 old-fashioned look and went for a walk 
 to cool off. 
 
 That was the afternoon when she ran 
 into the Boy Who Doesn't Count. 
 
 Charlotte had often noticed him. He 
 was in his senior year at high school, and 
 though he was the smartest boy in his 
 class he wasn't at all homely, having one 
 of those keen, wistful faces which go so 
 well with curly hair. His name was 
 Neil Kennedy, and perhaps because he 
 had no mother, and perhaps because his 
 father was seldom sober for two weeks 
 
 35
 
 together, Neil was a bashful boy who 
 easily blushed, especially if you met him 
 on his paper route, or if he thought you 
 were looking at the patches on his 
 clothes. Charlotte met him that after- 
 noon near the red bridge with a bundle 
 of papers and magazines under his arm 
 met him so unexpectedly as he was 
 turning out of a gate that she ran right 
 into him and not only sent his papers 
 and magazines flying, but nearly sent 
 him flying after them. Of course, she 
 helped him gather his papers together, 
 and, of course, they couldn't help 
 speaking. 
 
 Next day, when she saw him at school, 
 she smiled at him and he not only smiled 
 back, but (not being accustomed to have 
 girls notice him that way) he blushed 
 like a beet. 
 
 " Mother," said Margaret that after- 
 noon, throwing her books down as soon 
 as she reached home, " you'll have to 
 
 36
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 speak to Charlotte. I feel so ashamed 
 I don't know what to do." 
 
 " What's the matter now? " asked her 
 patient mother. 
 
 "Matter? Mmh! You know that 
 ragged Neil Kennedy, the boy who de- 
 livers papers? Well, Charlotte's gone 
 and fell in love with him! " 
 
 Whereupon, Micah's apples or no 
 Micah's apples, Charlotte showed such 
 a bright, sparkling glow of temper that 
 Margaret shrank back and, not know- 
 ing what else to do, she burst into tears. 
 At this Charlotte's temper went cool 
 again and she stared at her pretty 
 cousin, her beaky little nose so curly with 
 disgust that it would have done you good 
 to see it. " Yes," she gravely nodded to 
 herself that night, " that's our beautiful 
 heroine ! " But she tried her best not 
 to make Neil blush again, although she 
 spoke to him whenever she saw him. 
 
 "It's too ridiculous!" she thought. 
 " There I used to think that a rich young 
 
 37
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 man would come riding along to Marlin 
 Mills some day, and we were going to 
 have such a romantic time together. 
 And first I find I'm homely 1 And then 
 they begin to tease me about Neil 
 Kennedy, who delivers papers and whose 
 father drinks ! " Whereat she shook that 
 wise little head of hers, and more in 
 wonder than sorrow she said: " Life's a 
 funny sum ! " 
 
 Thus the two cousins grew up, one 
 growing more old-fashioned and the 
 other growing prettier every day. By 
 the time they reached their senior year 
 at high school, Margaret had developed 
 into what can only be described as a 
 howling beauty, and Charlotte found 
 herself dreaming more and more often 
 of the day when she would do that sum 
 which she had already decided would 
 startle the world. 
 
 ' Yes, and I can, too! " she told her- 
 self one afternoon. " I feel it in me! " 
 
 She had walked out into the country
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to the top of Flat Rock and was watch- 
 ing the sunset, and as that miracle of 
 color began to unfold itself in the west 
 Charlotte felt in her tender young bosom 
 such a yearning for life and success that, 
 quite involuntarily, she threw out her 
 arms to the distant horizon and tears 
 brimmed to her eyes. " I'll show them ! " 
 she whispered. "I'll show them if it's 
 everything to be pretty, and nothing 
 else counts ! " 
 
 For that, you see, had almost come to 
 be an obsession with her; and as she 
 stood there, watching the sunset, she saw 
 herself, in fancy, a little Miss Moses, 
 leading herself and her sisters into a 
 Promised Land where pretty maids 
 count about the same as pretty men, 
 and the average girl can be a heroine 
 just as well as though she were a modern 
 Hebe. 
 
 The sunset over, she went home, 
 thoughtfully intent upon the Great Sum 
 which she was going to set for herself, 
 
 S9
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 and as graduation day drew near she 
 spent many an hour with herself, dream- 
 ing those grand, misty dreams which are 
 the heritage of youth and ambition, and 
 trying to shape them into tangible 
 form. Many a career she sketched for 
 herself, only to erase it from her mind 
 with an impatient shake of her head. 
 " I ought to think of something better 
 than that," she would say; " and I will, 
 too, if I'm smart! " 
 
 To tell the truth, much as she tried 
 to hide it from herself, the element of 
 romance was always present in her 
 dreams. She didn't want a vocation so 
 much as she wished for an adventure 
 an adventure of youth and love and suc- 
 cess; a drama, if you like something 
 imaginative, something to appeal to the 
 spirit as well as to the mind. 
 
 " I'll get it yet," she kept telling her- 
 self. " I'll get it yet if I'm smart, and 
 I've got to be smart or I'm nothing." 
 
 Well, as a matter of fact, she " got 
 
 40
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 it " the day after graduation, and it 
 came to her (as such things generally 
 do ) in a way she had never expected. In 
 their evening exercises some of the mem- 
 bers of the graduating class gave a one- 
 act play, and it won't take you long to 
 guess that Margaret was the heroine. 
 It is doubtful if she ever looked prettier 
 in her life than she looked that night; 
 and, because she was the acknowledged 
 belle of Penfield and everyone felt proud 
 of her (none of them knowing her half 
 so well as her cousin Charlotte did) , she 
 was enthusiastically applauded. The 
 next day her picture appeared in the 
 " Penfield Journal," a two-column wide 
 cut with a half-column notice, while 
 Charlotte's name only appeared once, 
 in a short sentence stating that she had 
 graduated at the head of her class. 
 
 Poor Charlotte! A weaker character 
 might have asked the despairing ques- 
 tion : " What's the use of being smart? " 
 After the performance the night before 
 41
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 she remembered everyone had crowded 
 around her pretty cousin to congratu- 
 late her, while she, who had graduated 
 at the head of her class, had sat neglected 
 in a corner, an old-fashioned little figure, 
 thinking things out. And when the 
 exercises were over, Willis Hayland had 
 taken Margaret home "Willis Hay- 
 land, the richest young man in Penfield, 
 while Charlotte had walked home with 
 Aunt Grace, her beaky little nose held 
 proudly to the stars, pretending not to 
 care. 
 
 ' Willis wanted to kiss me, too, 
 mamma," reported Margaret next day ; 
 " and he called me his little girl and 
 asked me if he could come over to- 
 night." She had told her mother this 
 before ; she wanted Charlotte to hear it, 
 too. 
 
 Charlotte heard it, but said nothing. 
 
 " I think it's dreadful, the way they've 
 put my picture in the paper," continued 
 Margaret, looking at the " Journal " 
 
 42
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 again and unconsciously preening her- 
 self. " I was never so surprised in my 
 life. And this awful piece about how 
 popular and pretty I am." 
 
 But still Charlotte said nothing. 
 
 " I wonder why they didn't print 
 your picture?" asked Margaret, turn- 
 ing to her cousin, piqued by her silence. 
 
 " How could they," retorted Char- 
 lotte, " when I didn't give them one? " 
 
 " Oh! Did anybody ask you for 
 one?" 
 
 "No! They did not." 
 
 Margaret turned and took a long, 
 lazy look at her cousin. " Good reason 
 why," she said. 
 
 And then she laughed ! 
 
 As everyone knows, there are laughs 
 and laughs ; and in spite of all she could 
 do, Charlotte found herself divided be- 
 tween anger and tears. She went to her 
 room as soon as she could, feeling as 
 though her cheeks had been stung with 
 nettles; and there she threw herself 
 
 43
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 across her bed and cried in the pillow, 
 as motherless girls have cried since time 
 immemorial. Perhaps those tears were 
 needed to clear the mists from her 
 dreams. After awhile she calmly arose 
 and bathed her face in cold water. 
 
 "Now!" she said, with that air of 
 resolution which always fell upon her 
 when she set herself a particularly dif- 
 ficult sum. " She's popular with some 
 of the people, but I'm going to make 
 everybody like me ! She had her picture 
 in the * Penfield Journal/ but I'm going 
 to have my picture in all the papers! 
 She thinks she's going to marry Willis 
 Hayland, but I'm going to marry one 
 of the handsomest and richest young men 
 in the whole United States! " 
 
 For a moment even Charlotte's 
 brightly glowing spirit felt awed in the 
 contemplation of those Three Great 
 Sums, but only for a moment. The 
 next second she was looking at herself 
 in the glass with a feeling of exaltation 
 
 44
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 that was close to grandeur, looking at 
 her deeply tender eyes, her expressive 
 eyebrows and her flushed cheeks, look- 
 ing at her Marlin's nose, which was in- 
 clined to be beaky, and her Marlin's 
 chin, which was inclined to be sensitive 
 shaped, as it was, with that mobility 
 which promises unfathomed tenderness. 
 ' Yes ! Yes ! Yes ! " she almost pas- 
 sionately whispered to herself, " as 
 homely as I am! "
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE morning after Charlotte set her- 
 self those Three Great Sums she found 
 that a feeling of reaction had followed 
 the excitement of the night before. 
 "Oh, I never, never could!" she told 
 herself in a frightened voice. " I would 
 only be a silly thing to try." 
 
 The more she thought it over the 
 more she felt that way. And, truth to 
 tell, her Three Great Sums were cer- 
 tainly formidable enough, even for a 
 girl who had been graduated at the head 
 of her class. " I might be able to get 
 some folks to like me," she thought, 
 " though I've never been able to make 
 friends yet. And I might be able to get 
 my picture in some of the papers, if I 
 did something awful enough! But to 
 make everybody like me and have my 
 picture in all the papers and then on 
 
 46
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 top of that to marry one of the hand- 
 somest and richest young men in the 
 whole United States! " With something 
 of a gasp she slipped out of bed and 
 looked at her reflection in the mirror. 
 " If I wasn't such a plain little thing! " 
 she almost cried. " But oh, dear! 
 perhaps the books are right after all, and 
 a heroine's got to be beautiful." 
 
 Still, as you have seen, it wasn't for 
 nothing that Charlotte had the old Mar- 
 lin spirit and had been raised, as a body 
 might say, right under the shadow of 
 Micah's apple tree; and after she had 
 appraised the hardness of her problem it 
 gradually began to lose some of its 
 terrors. 
 
 " Of course, anybody can do the easy 
 sums," she thoughtfully reflected, " and, 
 of course, somebody's got to marry him 
 I don't care who he is ! " 
 
 So, as she dressed herself, she began 
 to study her problem in a most delight- 
 ful manner, at one moment reasoning 
 
 47
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 with the power of a logician whose 
 geometry papers had always been 
 marked with an " A," and at the next 
 reasoning with the sublime innocence of 
 a country girl who had never been more 
 than nine miles away from the farm 
 where she was born. 
 
 " After all," she thought, " women 
 have solved harder problems than mine. 
 Think of Mrs. Browning, who made 
 herself as famous as her husband; and 
 think of Madame Curie, who discovered 
 radium and Helen Keller, who was 
 deaf, dumb and blind! And think of 
 the first woman lawyer and the first 
 woman doctor what sums they set 
 themselves! So, after all," she repeated, 
 " I don't see why I need be frightened 
 even at even at even at marrying 
 a millionaire! " 
 
 She blushed at that, and began 
 brushing her hair so hard that it 
 crackled. 
 
 " It'll be 'like algebra, or French, or 
 
 48
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 German," she thought. "If you look 
 at the end of the textbook first, you think 
 to yourself, ' I could never learn this ' ! 
 But if you do a little every day, start- 
 ing at the front of the book and working 
 up step by step, why, it all comes just as 
 easy ! " 
 
 At that she felt so confident that she 
 coiled her hair into a queenly little bob, 
 and began to search her bureau drawer. 
 There she found a tiny memorandum 
 book bound in purple morocco, a Christ- 
 mas present which someone had given 
 her years before. Next she found a pen- 
 cil, and then she wrote her first Great 
 Sum on the first page of the purple 
 book: 
 
 " One How can I make everybody 
 like me? " 
 
 Turning the page over she sat for a 
 long time, nibbling the end of her 
 pencil. 
 
 "Of course," she thought, " to get 
 my picture in all the papers I shall have 
 
 4 49
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to do something to make myself famous. 
 So that's really the next sum," and she 
 wrote: 
 
 " Two How can I make myself 
 famous? " 
 
 The next proposition needed no re- 
 flection at all, and down it went straight- 
 way: 
 
 " Three How can I marry a mil- 
 lionaire? " 
 
 " I'll start on the first," she said, " be- 
 cause that's the easiest." And, hurriedly 
 turning back to the first page, she re- 
 peated to herself over and over again: 
 " How can I make everybody like me? 
 How can I make everybody like me? " 
 
 A wide, deep question, this, when you 
 think it over; and one, no doubt, that 
 has puzzled many thousand minds, from 
 queens' to quacks', since popularity had 
 prizes to bestow. Wherefore it isn't sur- 
 prising that Charlotte found it a hard 
 nut for her little teeth; and it seemed to 
 
 50
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 grow harder the more she tried to 
 crack it. 
 
 All that day and the next and the 
 next she thought it over, but still she 
 failed to get an answer. 
 
 " Perhaps if I were to start a dancing 
 class," she thought once, for instance, 
 " everybody would like me." 
 
 But, in the first place, Charlotte 
 couldn't dance ; and, in the second place, 
 there was nowhere in Penfield where a 
 dancing class could be held except in 
 Thayer Hall ; and Deacon Thayer didn't 
 believe in dancing, because of what the 
 daughter of Herodias once did, and he 
 wasn't going to have any such doings 
 going on in Thayer Hall. So, you see, 
 that wouldn't do. 
 
 " Perhaps if I gave comic recitations, 
 like Bertha Ennis does, and made them 
 all laugh," thought Charlotte another 
 time, " everybody would like me." 
 
 But in the first place, Charlotte's 
 wasn't the comic spirit (her childhood at 
 
 51
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Marlin Mills had something to do with 
 this) ; and, in the second place, when- 
 ever she had to speak in public her feet 
 seemed to grow so big and her hands so 
 red, and her voice seemed to proceed 
 from such a far country, that the whole 
 proceeding was more like a nightmare 
 to Charlotte than anything else. 
 
 So, as you plainly see again, that 
 wouldn't do. 
 
 "If I could only do something to 
 make myself famous," she thought, 
 " everybody might like me." 
 
 But this, as she realized at once, was 
 Sum Number Two, and after a few 
 minutes' reflection it looked like a harder 
 nut to crack than Number One. 
 
 " It's a good thing the easiest one 
 comes first," she droopingly told herself, 
 discouraged for a moment. It was only 
 for a moment, though, and then her 
 beaky little nose went up as resolutely as 
 ever. " Never mind! " she cried. " I'll 
 get them yet." 
 
 52
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 On the very next day an event took 
 place which drove all thoughts of the 
 Three Great Sums completely out of her 
 mind. Judge Darbie called to see Aunt 
 Grace, and then Charlotte was sent for. 
 They broke the news to her as gently as 
 they could, but when it was over Char- 
 lotte knew that the Marlin Creamery 
 Company had gone into bankruptcy 
 with such a crash that her bonds were 
 practically worthless, that her income of 
 ten dollars a week had utterly ceased to 
 exist, and that all she had left in the 
 world was the old Marlin farm and one 
 hundred and eight dollars in the bank. 
 
 " So I'm not only homely," she whis- 
 pered to her sober little self that night, 
 " I'm poor as well! " And listening to 
 Margaret, who was playing the piano 
 to Willis Hayland, downstairs, she 
 couldn't help half sobbing to herself: 
 "Oh, dear! I'd rather be smart than 
 pretty, but doesn't it make an awful lot 
 of work?" 
 
 53
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 For a long time after the piano down- 
 stairs had stopped, Charlotte lay awake, 
 her Three Great Sums temporarily 
 eclipsed by that greater problem which 
 comes to nearly all of us at some time or 
 other : that absorbing conundrum which 
 relates to the making of a living, and is 
 sometimes referred to as the Problem of 
 Existence. 
 
 " Oh, well," she thought, punching 
 the pillow just before she settled down 
 to sleep, " I'm young and healthy, and 
 that's a lot to be thankful for. Think of 
 those poor emigrant girls who come over 
 here, strangers in a strange land, and 
 can't even speak English. If they can 
 get on I'm sure I can. So I'm not going 
 to worry any more about it. There's 
 some way I can make a living in a great, 
 big country like this, and if I'm smart 
 it won't take me long to find out how." 
 
 She " found out how " the very next 
 day, and the thought came to her (as 
 such things often do ) like a flash. " The 
 
 54
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 teacher never stayed at the Mills for 
 more than a year," she thought. " I'll 
 go right over to Mr. Chapman's and see 
 if there's a vacancy now." 
 
 But before going to see the school 
 superintendent she put on her longest 
 dress, and did her hair up old, and looked 
 so prim and old-fashioned that all she 
 needed was a bonnet and you would 
 have thought that she had stepped right 
 out of one of those old daguerrotypes, 
 the kind with the oval pictures and the 
 mats with the old-rose plush. 
 
 Mr. Chapman beamed when he saw his 
 brightest graduate, and would have 
 joked with her, but Charlotte was afraid 
 to beam or joke back for fear he might 
 think her too young or too giddy. So 
 she sat sedately on the edge of her chair 
 and sedately stated her errand. And 
 how her heart jumped when she learned 
 that there was indeed a vacancy at Mar- 
 lin Mills, and how it jumped again when 
 Mr. Chapman promised her the position! 
 
 55
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 The very next day but one she re- 
 ceived an official letter from the School 
 Committee, formally appointing her to 
 the vacant position. The salary was 
 twenty-five dollars a month; but she 
 couldn't have been any happier if it had 
 been two hundred and fifty. 
 
 " I'm independent independent ! " 
 she sang to herself, with much the same 
 spirit, no doubt, that her forebears sang 
 after a certain momentous affair which 
 began in 1776 ; and she ran to the kitchen 
 with the look of one who had the world 
 at her feet. 
 
 "So you're really going? " asked 
 Aunt Grace in a tired, flat voice. Aunt 
 Grace had been ironing Margaret's 
 dresses for the last two hours and looked 
 as tired as she sounded. 
 
 * Yes, aunty, and I'm awfully sorry 
 everytime I think of leaving you. Mr. 
 Briggs is going to drive me over in the 
 morning, so I must pack now." 
 
 Aunt Grace put the cool iron back on 
 $6
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the stove and tried a new one with a 
 quick dab of her moistened finger. The 
 motion was quicker than the eye could 
 follow, but her thoughts seemed to be on 
 something else, because while she was 
 trying the iron she was drawing a long, 
 slow sigh. " I shall miss you an awful 
 lot, Charlotte," she said. 
 
 They looked at each other aunt and 
 niece; Experience and Youth and 
 though neither spoke, each knew that 
 the other was thinking of Margaret. As 
 though by mutual consent they stood 
 listening for a moment to the song 
 Margaret was practising in the front 
 room: 
 
 " You're wonderful " (Chord) 
 " You're marvelous '* ( Chord) 
 " You're the sweetest girl in the world.** 
 
 Aunt Grace spoke first. Not even 
 by silence would she consciously place 
 her pretty daughter in the wrong. " If 
 you ever find it lonesome over there," 
 she said, " you come right back here. 
 
 57
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 I'll run up and help you pack as soon as 
 I get this other dress done." 
 
 Charlotte had to pass through the hall 
 to go upstairs. 
 
 Margaret heard her and swung 
 around on the piano stool. She was 
 wearing a pink-and-white-striped skirt 
 and a washable-silk blouse and, espe- 
 cially in comparison with her mother in 
 the kitchen, she looked refreshingly 
 sweet and cool. " Where are you 
 going? " she asked. 
 
 " Upstairs," said Charlotte. 
 
 " What are you going to do? " 
 
 " Pack." 
 
 ' Then you're really going to that 
 hole? " 
 
 ' Yes, I'm really going to that hole 
 and earn my own living in that hole, 
 if you want to know." 
 
 Margaret laughed. " I was telling 
 Willis about it last night," she said. 
 " He says the only people at Marlin 
 
 58
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Mills are three old maids and a half- 
 witted boy." 
 
 " When I get there there'll he four 
 old maids," said Charlotte shortly. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," laughed Marg- 
 aret. " There's the half-witted boy, re- 
 member." 
 
 Charlotte bit the end of her tongue 
 and went upstairs; but the next morn- 
 ing as she rode back to her birthplace in 
 Mr. Briggs' wagon she found herself 
 thinking of what her pretty cousin had 
 told her. 
 
 When they first left Penfield the 
 houses they passed had a prosperous ap- 
 pearance, and the people she saw waved 
 their hands at her. But gradually, as 
 they jolted farther and farther into the 
 country, the farms began to look more 
 and more dilapidated, and sharp-faced 
 curiosity was seen more often than 
 smiles. 
 
 " Great country for rocks hereabout," 
 said Mr. Briggs, stroking his enormous 
 
 59
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 mustache. " Farmers used to sharpen 
 their sheep's noses so they could get a 
 bite between the stones." After this 
 ancient jest Mr. Briggs mutely retired 
 (if one may speak that way) behind his 
 enormous mustache, as though the 
 prospect depressed him and he wished to 
 philosophize upon life. 
 
 ' There's one comfort," thought 
 Charlotte, looking around: " It can't 
 get any worse than this." 
 
 But a mile or two farther, after pass- 
 ing three abandoned farms, one after 
 another, they came to the most desolate 
 of all desolate sights, an abandoned 
 church, with its steeple awry and its roof 
 fallen in. 
 
 "Oh !"gasped Charlotte. 
 
 "Pretty bad!" agreed Mr. Briggs. 
 
 " What's the matter with these farms 
 that the people don't stay here? " 
 
 " Too fur from the railway to take 
 their milk. Sixteen miles there and back 
 
 60
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 every day. Too much for any farm 
 team." 
 
 " Then why does anybody live here? " 
 
 "Search me!" said the candid Mr. 
 Briggs. " No place else to go, I guess." 
 
 Whereupon he retired again behind 
 his enormous mustache, and poor Char- 
 lotte's heart felt so heavy and moved so 
 strangely that it might have been a little 
 pair of millstones in her bosom, grind- 
 ing a grist of doleful premonitions. 
 Knowing herself to be not far from tears 
 she opened her bag for her handkerchief, 
 and the first thing that touched her hand 
 was that purple memorandum book in 
 which she had entered her Three Great 
 Sums. 
 
 " To make everybody like me! " she 
 thought, looking around. " To make 
 myself famous! And to marry a mil- 
 lionaire! Snf-ha!" 
 
 " Did you speak? " asked Mr. Briggs. 
 
 N-no," said Charlotte in an uncer- 
 tain voice. " I was laughing ; that's all." 
 
 61
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHEN dinner was over Charlotte 
 helped Aunt Hepzibah with the dishes, 
 and then they began to exchange con- 
 fidences. They talked about Aunt 
 Grace, and Margaret, and Margaret's 
 rich beau, and how Aunt Grace did up 
 her quinces, and how much they paid the 
 minister at Penfield; and then, the scene 
 shifting to Marlin Mills, they talked 
 about those faithful members of the Old 
 Guard who had not yet moved or (with 
 greater dignity) been moved away. 
 
 There were only six families left, and 
 only seven pupils to attend the school- 
 house under the old Marlin elms, that 
 same schoolhouse where Nathan Hale 
 once taught before he went away to voice 
 his deathless regret. 
 
 " And, out o' them seven, one's a bit 
 
 62
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 simple," said Aunt Hepzibah. " Billy 
 Bates. You remember him? " 
 
 " Yes," nodded Charlotte, frowning 
 at what Margaret had said. 
 
 " The old folks haven't changed much 
 those that are left," continued her 
 aunt. " A little crabbeder, you'll find 
 'em, and a little poorer. But that's Mar- 
 lin Mills all over." 
 
 " I'm going for a walk this after- 
 noon," said Charlotte, " and I'll make a 
 few calls. If they were all like you, 
 Aunt Hepzy, what a lovely time I'd 
 have ! " And she gave her aunt such a 
 young-bear's hug that both of them felt 
 their hearts grow warm, and they stood 
 there for a moment, embracing, as those 
 who love have embraced each other since 
 time immemorial. 
 
 " Yes," thought Charlotte as she 
 dressed to go out. " And if I had come 
 home cross and cranky I'd soon be mak- 
 ing Aunt Hepzibah cross and cranky, 
 too. Which goes to show- " " She 
 

 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 paused, one shoe off and one shoe on, 
 such an inspiration striking her that it 
 brought a flush to her cheeks and a new 
 brightness to her eye. 'There!" she 
 breathed to herself. " I do believe I've 
 got it!" 
 
 She thought it over carefully, as 
 though it were a problem in arithmetic 
 or the syntax of a verb. ' Yes," she 
 whispered in exultation, " I do believe 
 I've got the answer to my first Great 
 Sum." She put on her other shoe, then, 
 and went to her chair by the window 
 that same window where she used to sit 
 and look at Micah's apple tree and the 
 village below, and dream of Little Nell 
 and Tiny Tim, and the beaus and belles 
 who used to walk beneath the Marlin 
 elms. 
 
 " Now! " she whispered. " Who are 
 
 the only ones in Penfield that I really 
 
 like ? " She counted them on her fingers. 
 
 ' There's Aunt Grace. And Judge 
 
 Darbie. And Mr. Chapman. And Miss 
 
 64
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Bartlett. And and Neil Kennedy. 
 And why do I like them? " she triumph- 
 antly asked herself. " I like them because 
 they like me. There! And that's the 
 reason I like Aunt Hepzibah. She likes 
 me I And that's the reason I don't like 
 Margaret. She doesn't like me! And 
 that's the reason all the young men like 
 Margaret. She likes them ! And that's 
 the reason nobody likes a selfish person, 
 because a selfish person likes nobody but 
 himself. There! So if I want people 
 to like me I've got to like them. And if 
 I want everybody to like me I've got to 
 like everybody, and that's all there is to 
 it! There!" 
 
 She jumped from her chair, filled with 
 that warmth of victory which she had 
 always felt at school after a particularly 
 difficult lesson had been learned; and, 
 putting on her hat, she almost danced 
 down the stairs, and started out to put 
 her theory to the test. 
 
 Down the stairs and down the hill 
 
 5 65
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 went Charlotte, as old-fashioned and 
 bonny a figure as you would have found 
 in these United States that day. Down 
 over the bridge she tripped, past the 
 grist mill with its columbines and ragged 
 robins growing among the ruins of the 
 dam, past the old blacksmith shop with 
 the leather fallen from its bellows and 
 its forge fire cold for nearly half a cen- 
 tury, past a row of deserted tenements 
 with gaunt holes in their roofs and half 
 their clapboards gone, but each with its 
 horseshoe hanging over the door to keep 
 bad luck away. 
 
 The next cottage had curtains at the 
 windows and zinnias growing in the 
 front yard, and when Charlotte turned 
 in at the gate she immediately became 
 conscious of the shrewd-faced old 
 woman who was watching her through 
 the window. 
 
 " Hello, Mrs. Johnson! " she laughed, 
 waving her hand. " I'm back again." 
 
 The old woman disappeared, and a 
 
 66
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 moment later the front door opened. 
 " Well, I swanny! " she exclaimed. " If 
 'taint Charlotte Marlin, growed out of 
 all knowledge ! " 
 
 If Charlotte had made that call the 
 day before she would have contented 
 herself with a quiet smile and a polite 
 "How are you?" And quietness 
 would have been met with quietness, and 
 politeness with a dignified gentility. But 
 this was a new Charlotte who was calling 
 on Mrs. Johnson, a girl who wanted 
 everybody to like her and who was will- 
 ing to pay the reasonable price of liking 
 everybody in exchange. So, instead of 
 a quiet smile and a polite " How are 
 you? " she danced up to Dame Johnson 
 with a sparkle in her eye and planted 
 such a kiss upon that withered old cheek 
 that, as if by magic, a gentle color im- 
 mediately blossomed there; for, oh, it 
 had been many a year since a pair of 
 young arms had folded themselves 
 around Dame Johnson's shoulders, or a 
 
 67
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 pair of young lips had pressed them- 
 selves against her cheek! 
 
 They chatted together for nearly half 
 an hour, and the more they talked the 
 more Charlotte found to like in her 
 lonely old hostess. If you could only 
 have heard the different things they 
 talked about! But, in the first place, it 
 would take too long ; and, in the second 
 place, it wasn't so much the things they 
 said that counted as the way they said 
 them. 
 
 It was the way they smiled at each 
 other, the rich little duets of laughter 
 they indulged in, the breathless nods of 
 the head, the sympathetic faces they 
 pulled, the delighted little snorts, and 
 all those graces and adornments of 
 speech which can only flourish in the 
 warmth of understanding, and wilt away 
 completely in the first cold blast that 
 blows little graces and adornments 
 which quite defy description. 
 
 But one thing I can tell you: When 
 
 68
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Charlotte had eaten her cake and picked 
 up her bunch of zinnias and kissed the 
 old dame on her other withered cheek, 
 those two parted firm friends and Char- 
 lotte knew she was well on the way to- 
 ward solving her first Great Sum. 
 
 If you could only have heard Char- 
 lotte, too, on the other calls she made 
 that afternoon, especially the one she 
 made on the coquettish Miss Hawley, 
 who was deaf and had an ear trumpet 
 but when all's said and done they were 
 patterned largely after the first. Char- 
 lotte had simply made up her mind that 
 she was going to like every body she 
 called upon. As a result she made 
 friends wherever she went, and at six 
 o'clock she returned home radiant, her 
 beaky little nose held high in triumph, 
 as though it were holding a jubilee. 
 
 "Well?" said Aunt Hepzibah, who 
 was busy at the stove. "See anybody? " 
 
 "Everybody!" laughed Charlotte. 
 
 69
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 "Doesn't take long. Found 'em a 
 pretty mis'able lot, didn't you? " 
 
 " No; I didn't! " cried Charlotte with 
 enthusiasm. " I think they're the most 
 interesting folks I ever met, and I love 
 them every one! " 
 
 Aunt Hepzibah turned, her features 
 stricken into an expression of utter as- 
 tonishment. "Well," she said at last, 
 her countenance growing more reflec- 
 tive, " I dunno but you're right. My 
 father used to say you could set your- 
 self either for a thing or against it one 
 about as easy as the other; and he was a 
 wise old man, though I say it myself. 
 Still you wait till you've lived among 
 'em as long as I have. You may have 
 diff erent notions then." 
 
 But, whether or not the element of 
 novelty entered into it, the fact remains 
 that Charlotte soon became a great 
 favorite in the limited society of Marlin 
 Mills. She helped Dame Johnson turn 
 her black silk skirt. She read the " Nor- 
 
 70
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 / 
 
 wich Bulletin " to Mrs. Winthrop, who 
 couldn't read, but would never confess 
 it, though everybody knew it. She took 
 fashion magazines to the coquettish Miss 
 Hawley, who had been an acknowledged 
 beauty in her day and had broken many 
 a heart which had long since turned to 
 dust. Yes, and before the month of 
 August was over she was calling all the 
 old men in the village " Uncle," and 
 whenever any of the seven children hap- 
 pened to see her, you might have thought 
 it was another Pied Piper of Hamelin 
 just after the burgomaster's refusal to 
 pay those thousand guilders. 
 
 " There! " thought Charlotte to her- 
 self one night, after making an entry in 
 her little purple book. " I know how to 
 make people like me, and now I'm ready 
 for the Second Sum." An expression 
 that was almost fear stole over her, and 
 in slow, subdued tones she continued: 
 " How can I make myself famous? " 
 
 She tried to figure out ways and means 
 
 71
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 till her head began to ache. She couldn't 
 sing ; she couldn't act ; she couldn't draw ; 
 she couldn't write; she couldn't play. 
 Then what on earth, she asked herself, 
 could she do ? No wonder her poor little 
 head ached! No wonder that, as the 
 days went on, there were times when 
 she felt like taking that little purple 
 book and hurling it into the Quinebaug 
 River as far as she could throw it. 
 
 She was glad of the diversion when 
 Mr. Chapman rode over to see her the 
 week before school started and explained 
 the lessons for the first term. 
 
 " I had a young gentleman inquiring 
 for you yesterday," he said, smiling with 
 significance just before he left. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Charlotte, looking very 
 sedate indeed. 
 
 '* Yes ; Neil Kennedy. He was gradu- 
 ated three years ago, you remember, 
 and won the Milner scholarship. At- 
 tending medical school now. He asked 
 to be remembered." 
 
 72
 
 "I'M GLAD HE'S GETTING ON SO WELL," SAID CHARLOTTE, 
 POLITELY
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Thank you," said Charlotte, more 
 sedate than before. 
 
 " A fine young fellow glad you 
 know him," continued Mr. Chapman 
 warmly. " Works hard every summer, 
 so he'll have a few hundred dollars saved 
 to start practice with. Going to make 
 his mark in the world. Just the sort of 
 a boy I like!" 
 
 " I'm glad he's getting on so well," 
 said Charlotte, politely enough. 
 
 But that night, when she went down 
 to the village to call on Dame Johnson, 
 she began thinking it over; and when 
 she walked back in the moonlight under 
 the Marlin elms, she began thinking it 
 over again; and the more she thought 
 it over the more indignant she grew. 
 
 " I don't see why Mr. Chapman spoke 
 like that," she said. " Neil Kennedy's 
 nothing to me ! What if he has his plans? 
 So have I! What if he does make his 
 mark in the world? Can't I make mine? 
 
 73
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Yes, and I will, too, or know the reason 
 why." 
 
 But oh, what a problem a problem 
 that many a million have vainly tried 
 to figure out since this old world began 
 to wag. If Charlotte had been a talented 
 young man in a great city the sum would 
 have been plenty hard enough or if she 
 had been a rich and beautiful girl it 
 would have been plenty hard enough. 
 But when you consider her living in that 
 deserted village, a poor little school- 
 ma'am who was about to teach for 
 twenty-five dollars a month; a poor lit- 
 tle schoolma'am, moreover, with a nose 
 inclined to be beaky and a chin inclined 
 to be sensitive; why then you can begin 
 to see what sort of a sum it was that she 
 had set herself. 
 
 Yet if you had met Charlotte on 
 Thanksgiving afternoon that year, as 
 she strode over the fields above the farm, 
 I don't think you would have quarreled 
 with her appearance. The sun and the 
 
 74
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 wind had kissed her cheeks till they 
 looked like ripe apples; her eyes had 
 that depth of tenderness which seems to 
 be reserved for old-fashioned girls ; and 
 the knowledge that everybody liked her 
 had given her an indefinable winsome- 
 ness of manner which can only be sug- 
 gested by the word " charm." 
 
 Summer and autumn in the country 
 had done her a world of good. She was 
 developing like a young goddess, and 
 there were moments when she had such a 
 vibrant gift of life that she threw out 
 her arms and felt she could fly. That 
 afternoon, particularly, as she strode up 
 the hill which overlooked the farm, she 
 walked as though her feet refused to 
 stay on the ground, and over and over 
 she kept repeating: " I've got it! Yes, 
 and I'm sure I can do it. I'm sure I 
 can if I'm smart." 
 
 She reached the top of the hill quite 
 out of breath, and made for an oak which 
 overlooked the country for miles around. 
 
 75
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 There she sat down and opened the two 
 papers which she had been carrying 
 under her arm. In each was the half- 
 tone picture of a happy if somewhat dis- 
 heveled young woman, and both pictures 
 bore the caption : " Miss Agnes Here- 
 ford. International Woman Golf 
 Champion." 
 
 " Of course, I don't know the first 
 thing about golf now," mused Char- 
 lotte breathlessly, " except what I've 
 read in the papers. But once upon a 
 time Miss Hereford didn't know the first 
 thing about it, either, and didn't she 
 win the championship? 'And now I 
 know that a girl can practice by Kerself . 
 And now I know that a great big farm 
 like this is the very best place to prac- 
 tice, too. So all I've got to do is to prac- 
 tice and practice and practice 
 morning, noon, and night more than 
 any girl in the world ever practiced be- 
 fore. And then " A thrill ran 
 
 over her as she continued in awe- 
 
 76
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 stricken accents " ' Miss Charlotte Mar- 
 lin, International Woman Golf Cham- 
 pion ' and I'll be famous, too! " 
 
 She sat there dreaming and looking 
 over the west till the spell of the sunset 
 claimed her, as it always had claimed 
 her ever since she could remember, with 
 its golden mystery, its gorgeous gran- 
 deur, its promise and fulfilment of things 
 that are felt but not seen. 
 
 " What a beautiful world! " breathed 
 Charlotte. 
 
 She arose, feeling herself a part of 
 the wonder and glory around her. In 
 the road below a moving figure caught 
 her eye. 
 
 " Neil Kennedy," she thought, frown- 
 ing a little, the spell lifting. " Home 
 for Thanksgiving, I guess." 
 
 And, her frown, deepening, the spell 
 quite broken, she asked herself: 
 
 " What has he come for? "
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LOOKING at Charlotte's Three Great 
 Sums from one point of view, you will 
 probably agree that they had a stu- 
 pendous quality in them. She was plain, 
 and yet she had made up her mind that 
 every body who knew her should like 
 her. 
 
 She lived in a practically deserted 
 village, eight miles away from the near- 
 est town or station, and yet she had re- 
 solved to be famous. 
 
 And finally she was poor, her only in- 
 come being the twenty-five dollars a 
 month which she received for teaching 
 the school at Marlin Mills and yet she 
 had determined to marry one of the 
 handsomest and richest young men in 
 the whole United States whoever and 
 wherever he might be! 
 
 But for all the stupendous nature of 
 
 78
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the Three Great Sums which she had set 
 herself, they also had in them that mag- 
 nificient quality of simplicity stu- 
 pendous simplicity, if you like which 
 might be said to be the spirit of America. 
 Indeed, in an allegorical way of speak- 
 ing I like to think that Charlotte's story 
 is a story of the spirit of American 
 womanhood, daring in its ideals, regard- 
 ing no ambition too high to be realized, 
 and building up, step by step, a beacon 
 light which yet may illumine the world. 
 For two years after organizing her 
 Marlin Mills Golf Association (with its 
 total membership of one!) Charlotte 
 practiced, and worked, and studied with 
 a single end in view. She sent for all the 
 golf books she could find, subscribed to 
 a golf magazine, memorized the records, 
 studied the diagrams of the leading 
 links, discovered there was a golf course 
 near New London, became a non-resi- 
 dent member (which required the help 
 of Judge Darbie and Mr. Chapman), 
 
 79
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 went down there on Saturday mornings 
 as often as she could afford it, made the 
 club professional like her by that reason- 
 able, rational method of liking him first, 
 and secured his advice on the many 
 points where she felt herself weak. 
 
 " My conscience! " he exclaimed one 
 morning, after he had watched her play 
 a particularly difficult shot. ; ' Where 
 did ye learn that now, I wonder? " 
 
 But if he had seen her at home, driv- 
 ing the ball around the old Marlin farm, 
 he wouldn't have wondered. Or if he 
 had seen her playing golf along the 
 country lanes and over the fields on her 
 way to school and back, attended by her 
 Seven Faithful Caddies, he wouldn't 
 have wondered either! Such hazards 
 she had to play ! Such shots she had to 
 make! Stone walls had to be consid- 
 ered, ruts, swamps, patches of poison 
 ivy, brush fields, Miss Hawley's geese 
 and Bates' bull oh, something like 
 practice and practical practice and 
 
 80
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 merry practice, too with Billy Bates 
 shouting " Jim'ny Christmas ! " every 
 time she made a good drive, and exclaim- 
 ing " Plop! " every time the ball rolled 
 into the hole. 
 
 Some days the grass would be wet and 
 Charlotte would say to herself, even as 
 you or I might have done: " I'll take a 
 rest to-day. No use getting my feet 
 wet." But then the thought would come 
 to her: " Suppose the grass is wet on the 
 day of the championship !" And a few 
 minutes later you would have found her 
 out in the orchard, driving the ball 
 around among the trees and getting up 
 such an appetite for breakfast! 
 
 Or some days she wouldn't be feeling 
 up to the mark, and then she would say 
 to herself, even as you or I might have 
 done: " I guess I'll take a rest to-day. 
 No use making myself sick." And then 
 would come the answering thought: 
 " But suppose you feel this way on the 
 day of the championship? You've got 
 
 6 81
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to be ready for anything! " Then out 
 she'd go and "fight it off " till her 
 cheeks glowed with that satisfaction 
 which comes from work well done, and 
 her eyes were bright with the victory of 
 the spirit which never says " Oh, I 
 can't !" 
 
 After the first burst of wonder, her 
 golf was taken as a matter of course in 
 the village. Nay, more: it was openly 
 defended. " A girl of that age has to 
 have suthin' to put her mind on," said 
 old Dame Johnson one afternoon, nod- 
 ding her head with the wisdom of her 
 seventy-five years. " And me, I'd 
 ruther see her traipsin' around after that 
 little white ball than running around 
 after some wuthless young fellow who'd 
 marry her out of hand and move her 
 away afore you could say ' Jack Rob- 
 inson!'" 
 
 \ " She don't have to run after the 
 young fellows," said the coquettish Miss 
 Hawley, holding out her ear trumpet. 
 
 82
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " The young fellows are running after 
 her." 
 
 " Pooh ! You mean that young spark 
 fromPenfield?" 
 
 " Yes, him. I see him around in his 
 car again this afternoon." 
 
 " Don't you worry about him. I see 
 Charlotte talking to him the other day 
 and the stiff way she was holding her 
 back ! I tell you right now, he might as 
 well stay home and save his gaso-leen." 
 
 In this spirited manner the village 
 gossiped about young Doctor Kennedy, 
 and if the old dame could have seen him 
 at that moment her opinion of his 
 chances would have gone down lower 
 yet. Charlotte had been practicing dif- 
 ficult shots in the old gravel pit when 
 Neil's car stopped. 
 
 "Hello, Charlotte!" he cheerfully 
 cried. 
 
 She gave him a glance which seemed 
 to say " What? You here again? " 
 A.nd turning back to her practice she 
 
 83
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 remarked in the cold tone of formality : 
 "How do you do, Neil?" 
 
 " Just happened to be passing," he 
 said. " And, of course, I couldn't help 
 stopping." 
 
 Festooned around the edge of the pit 
 were the Seven Faithful Ones, their 
 fourteen eyes gravely watching, their 
 fourteen ears gravely listening. Char- 
 lotte went on trying her difficult shots, 
 and a naughty, yes, a wicked thought 
 gradually took shape in her mind, as 
 wicked thoughts have taken shape since 
 time immemorial. 
 
 " I practiced how to make people like 
 me," she thought, " because that was my 
 First Sum. And I'm practising this 
 because of my Second Sum. But there's 
 one thing I've never practiced yet " 
 
 She checked her thoughts and blushed 
 tremendously, those fourteen eyes re- 
 garding her gravely from the edge of the 
 pit. " I don't care," she thought, flying 
 to her own defense ; " he's got no right 
 
 84
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to come around bothering me like this." 
 
 And though, even then, she wouldn't 
 put her thought into words, if you could 
 have looked deep down into her mind, 
 and have lifted the veil of modesty which 
 you would have found there, you would 
 have come to one of those secret places 
 which all of us keep hidden in the depths 
 of our consciousness and in that secret 
 place of Charlotte's mind you would 
 have found this unphrased thought 
 burning ever so brightly, ever so imp- 
 ishly: " I'm going to pretend he's a mil- 
 lionaire and practice on him ! " 
 
 " Don't you want to take the children 
 home in your car? " 
 
 Fourteen bright eyes turned upon the 
 young physician, and the fire of hope 
 flared high in seven young hearts. 
 
 " I'd rather take you home," he 
 bluntly replied. 
 
 Charlotte tried that difficult shot 
 again. " You can come back for me," 
 she said. 
 
 85
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Whereupon he beckoned the Faithful 
 Seven with enthusiasm, and with en- 
 thusiasm they tumbled down into the 
 pit and charged upon the car. How 
 they stowed themselves in that single- 
 seated runabout can better be imagined 
 than described. All you could see were 
 seven excited children, and the doctor's 
 head, and a suggestion of wheels. And 
 when the Little Rattler started off, in- 
 stead of its customary clashing and 
 gnashing of gears, its rackety clatter of 
 fenders and hood, all you could hear 
 were the Seven Faithful Ones who were 
 having the first car ride of their young 
 lives and were finding it filled with the 
 most exquisite emotions. 
 
 Compared to this loud departure, it 
 didn't seem like the same Little Rattler 
 which came back twenty minutes later 
 and quietly waited, its door open, for 
 Charlotte to take her place. 
 
 " Where shall we go? " asked Neil. 
 
 " I thought you were going to take me 
 
 86
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 home," said Charlotte, looking at him 
 with her deeply expressive eyes. 
 
 " Oh, I can always take you home. 
 But where shall we go first? " 
 
 Charlotte considered for a moment, 
 and then her weakness for sunsets pre- 
 vailed. " Suppose we take this road to 
 the top of the hill," she said. " There's 
 a beautiful view from there." 
 
 As though it heard her, the Little 
 Rattler at once roared forward and be- 
 gan to storm up the hill. 
 
 " You know, it won't always be like 
 this," said Neil. " A doctor has to go 
 slow the first year, but it won't be long 
 now before I'll be making a good living. 
 Say! Did you ever see my pill box? " 
 
 Written down, it looks like a prosaic 
 question, but you would have been sur- 
 prised at the sentiment which the young 
 physician managed to crowd into it. 
 
 " N-no," said Charlotte. 
 
 " I'll show it to you as soon as we get 
 to the top." 
 
 87
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Saying so, he stole a glance at her, 
 and at the same time (covertly studying 
 him) she happened to be stealing a 
 glance at him. The next moment Char- 
 lotte was staring straight ahead ; but the 
 young physican wasn't ! 
 
 ' You know, I don't expect to be a 
 country doctor all my life," he con- 
 tinued. " Some day I'm going to New 
 York and take a post-graduate course 
 in surgery, and keep working and study- 
 ing till I get to be one of the best-known 
 surgeons in the country. You'd be sur- 
 prised how much those fellows make out 
 of a single operation. Why some of 'em 
 won't look at anything less than a thou- 
 sand dollars! " 
 
 They had reached the top of the hill, 
 and, as it wasn't yet time for the sunset, 
 Charlotte looked at the pill box with its 
 ingenious rows of vials and multicolored 
 pellets. 
 
 " Isn't it wonderful! " she said, glanc-
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 ing at him with her deeply expressive 
 eyes. 
 
 She looked back at the vials and 
 noticed that his hand trembled as it 
 moved over them, and his voice trem- 
 bled, too, as hands and voices have 
 trembled since time immemorial when 
 young men have felt their time is grow- 
 ing short. 
 
 In the west the sun had fallen below 
 the horizon and the magic glow of the 
 sunset fell on the valley below, which 
 waited, hushed and expectant, for the 
 greater glory of color to come. As Neil 
 went on talking, it seemed to Charlotte 
 that her heart had never been so full, 
 that she had never been so near to under- 
 standing the Greatest Sum of All that 
 Sum which starts in the sunset and which 
 never, never ends. 
 
 It was Neil's voice which broke the 
 spell : " And when I'm getting, say, 
 twenty-five a week, sure, you can quit 
 this school-teaching and we'll get mar- 
 
 89
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 ried, and rent that house of Doctor Bald- 
 win's, furnished " 
 
 " Oh! " gasped Charlotte. " No, no, 
 Neil! Stop! You mustn't! " 
 
 ; ' Why not? " he gently demanded, 
 trying to find her hand. 
 
 In the panic which fell upon her, 
 Charlotte's thoughts rallied around her 
 favorite formula: "I've got to be 
 smart! " Instinctively feeling that 
 flight was the only way to safety, she 
 jumped out of the car and pulled her 
 golf clubs after her. "Oh, Neil, I 
 can't ! " she said. " You don't under- 
 stand! I I'll take a short cut through 
 the fields and you'll be home all the 
 sooner. Good-bye." 
 
 She was over the wall before he real- 
 ized what she was doing and had dis- 
 appeared among the birches. Then, 
 too late, he followed after and found 
 himself lost in the brush. 
 
 " Oh, Charlotte! " he cried. 
 
 But no voice answered. He heard a 
 
 90
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 noise among the leaves, and, hurrying 
 toward it, he found it was a flock of 
 quail which had been settling for the 
 night. 
 
 " Oh, Charlotte! " he cried again. 
 
 But no voice answered him. Sadly, 
 lonesomely, then, he returned to the 
 Little Rattler and, when he glanced at it 
 from over the wall, he saw that it had 
 taken upon itself a strange, blurred ap- 
 pearance, as though he were looking at 
 it through a pane of rain-swept glass.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 CHARLOTTE hurried down to the open 
 fields below, vaguely frightened at the 
 pounding of her heart, vaguely angry 
 with herself because she felt that way. 
 " As though I'd drop my plans for 
 him!" she thought. "Would he drop 
 his for me? " 
 
 She came to the open fields, but hesi- 
 tated to cross them for fear that Neil 
 might be watching and would follow. 
 " I wonder if he's calling yet," she 
 smiled half wistfully, half defiantly; 
 and, still smiling, she bent her head and 
 listened. Presently from the road she 
 heard the noise of the Little Rattler, 
 clattering down the hill. She pictured 
 Neil at the wheel, lonely, disappointed, 
 sadly going down the hill which he had 
 mounted with such high hopes. 
 
 " I don't care! " she thought, tossing 
 
 92
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 her head. " People have to be smart 
 and think of themselves if they want to 
 get on in the world. He was thinking 
 of himself when he asked me, and I was 
 thinking of myself when I ran away. 
 . . . All the same, I'm glad I didn't 
 have to practice on him. It was a horrid 
 idea, and I'm glad I didn't have to. And 
 I've found that a man can love me if he 
 likes me yes, homely as I am and 
 that's an awful lot to know." 
 
 It was knowledge, indeed, that gave 
 her a deeper hold on life. Even as she 
 swung down the fields to the farm, there 
 seemed to be a greater sense of assur- 
 ance in her poise, a prouder tilt to the 
 angle of her chin; and in the next few 
 weeks the Faithful Seven might have 
 seen greater depths of tenderness in her 
 eyes, especially when she turned to 
 answer a question after looking through 
 the window at the blue sky which hung 
 over the old Marlin elms outside. 
 
 " I'm glad he hasn't come back," said
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Charlotte the day after school had closed 
 for the summer. From which you can 
 see that she must have been thinking of 
 Neil, particularly as she was practising 
 difficult shots in the gravel pit. " To- 
 morrow I'll go and have my name 
 entered for the Woman's Tournament, 
 and after that, of course, I shan't be able 
 to think of anything else." 
 
 Next morning she went down to the 
 New London Golf Club where, as you 
 know, she was already good friends with 
 Mr. Ogilvie, the professional. Perhaps 
 her adventure with Neil had given an 
 added assurance to her playing as well, 
 but whatever it was, after she had gone 
 around the course twice with Mr. Ogil- 
 vie, he not only opened his eyes in the 
 widest amazement, but he also said: 
 ' Will ye come to the clubhouse a few 
 minutes, Miss Marlin? I want to in- 
 troduce you to our president and have 
 a few words wi' him." 
 
 He left her in a chair on the veranda 
 
 94
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 and went inside to find Mr. Phair, the 
 president. Although Charlotte had 
 never seen him, she had read of him 
 often ; and presently, when the sound of 
 two voices came through an open win- 
 dow, one of them belonging to Mr. 
 Ogilvie, it didn't require much eif ort to 
 deduce that the other belonged to Mr. 
 Phair. 
 
 " I tell ye, sir," said Mr. Ogilvie, 
 " I've coached her till she's a wonder. 
 The first time around I played easy, 
 being unsuspicious, and she beat me. 
 The second time I played as canny 
 as I could, but she beat me just the 
 same! " 
 
 " Good for the home talent! " laughed 
 Mr. Phair. " Yes, I'd like to meet this 
 prodigy of yours." 
 
 They found Charlotte on a corner of 
 the veranda, looking out over the Sound. 
 " You live near New London? " Mr. 
 Phair asked her, when they had chatted 
 for a time.
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " No," said Charlotte, " I live at Mar- 
 lin Mills." 
 
 "Where's that?" 
 
 " In the northeast corner of the state, 
 * the wild part of Connecticut ! ' ' she 
 smiled. And then in an honest desire 
 to play fair with this twinkling-eyed, 
 gray-haired gentleman, she quietly 
 added: "I'm the school-teacher up 
 there." 
 
 "No!" he cried in delight. 
 
 " Oh, but I am," said Charlotte, and 
 watched to see how he would take it. 
 " Perhaps he won't like me," she 
 thought, " now he knows I'm not rich. 
 Perhaps he'll change his tone," she 
 thought, " now he knows I'm a school- 
 teacher." 
 
 But Charlotte needn't have worried. 
 For one reason, Mr. Phair was an 
 American gentleman, which is as far as 
 anyone can get from being snobbish. 
 And, for another reason, he had made 
 his own millions and had made them 
 
 96
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 honestly; that is to say, he had the gift 
 of imagination and knew how to carry 
 a plan out well. The golf course, the 
 huge hotel, whose roof could be seen 
 above the trees, the concrete road which 
 wound along the shore for ten miles be- 
 tween a double line of maples, the cot- 
 tages, the model farm all these were 
 the fruits of Mr. Phair's genius. 
 
 " My dear young lady! " he delight- 
 edly cried again, " if you can only win! 
 But where have you been practising? " 
 
 : ' Up at the farm. The fields are 
 much like the links here all hills and 
 hollows." 
 
 A deep content had fallen over her. 
 " He likes me," she thought, " even if 
 I am a school-teacher. He likes me even 
 if I am poor and homely." She straight- 
 way fell to liking Mr. Phair with all her 
 might and main, and when they parted 
 half an hour later it was like a parting 
 of old friends. 
 
 " I shall send your name in to-night," 
 
 7 97
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 he said. " And if you can bring the 
 championship to New London well, 
 you wait and see what happens to youl " 
 
 That was in July, and the tour- 
 nament began on the sixteenth of 
 August. There were forty-seven entries 
 that year for the Woman's International 
 Title including two from Canada, one 
 from Hawaii, and three from Great 
 Britain, among the latter being Lady 
 Salisbury, the famous English player 
 and holder of the title. "Imagine!" 
 murmured Charlotte. " Coming all the 
 way from Canada and Honolulu and 
 England and Scotland! And here I 
 have the boldness to think that I can 
 beat them all." 
 
 For a little while her heart turned 
 heavy and her feet turned cold, but a 
 few minutes later Charlotte tossed her 
 head so vigorously that, if she had been 
 a queen, her crown would certainly have 
 tumbled off. " No, sir! " she cried. 
 " Lady Salisbury can't frighten me. All 
 
 98
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the champions living are going to be 
 beaten some day, and why shouldn't I 
 beat one? " 
 
 But the next day, when she packed 
 her suit case, she had to grow quite 
 angry with herself to keep her courage 
 up, and when Mr. Briggs' red-wheeled 
 buggy came up from Penfield to take 
 her to the station she wept openly and 
 bade Aunt Hepzibah good-bye as 
 though she never expected to see her in 
 this world again. 
 
 The tournament began on Monday. 
 The business of the first day was to re- 
 duce the number of contestants to thirty- 
 two. Charlotte started early and turned 
 in a score which easily qualified her as an 
 entrant, and after that she had nothing 
 to do except watch the others. 
 
 " I guess I'm the only poor one," she 
 thought once. " All the others seem to 
 have that dress and manner : 
 
 She was anxious to see Lady Salis- 
 bury, but the latter, also finishing early, 
 
 99
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 had disappeared, and the most that 
 Charlotte could learn was that her lady- 
 ship was staying with friends. 
 
 " It must be nice to be a ladyship 
 staying with friends," thought Char- 
 lotte, who was staying at a boarding 
 house which Mr. Ogilvie had recom- 
 mended; " but I guess I'll see her soon 
 enough. I only hope I shan't be matched 
 against her to-morrow/' 
 
 The next day the thirty-two qualify- 
 ing players were paired off into sixteen 
 sets of opponents. Charlotte was 
 matched against a girl from California. 
 After the first few minutes, the result 
 was never in doubt. " Take it easy, 
 miss," said the highly gratified Mr. 
 Ogilvie, who was caddying for Char- 
 lotte. " You hold her in the hollow of 
 your hand." 
 
 Thereafter Mr. Ogilvie's face de- 
 noted such stoniness of expression that 
 you might have been puzzled to know 
 
 the state of his feelings ; but if you could 
 
 100
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 have seen the tremendous winks which 
 he secretly gave himself from time to 
 time, you would have known that at 
 least he wasn't unhappy. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you? " he demanded, 
 when Charlotte won against the girl 
 from California. 
 
 The next day there were sixteen sur- 
 viving players, which made eight con- 
 testing couples. Charlotte was suffer- 
 ing a reaction from the excitement of 
 the day before, and she caused Mr. 
 Ogilvie acute suffering for the first four 
 holes. " She's cr-r-racking! She's 
 cr-r-racking under the strain!" he 
 groaned to himself. 
 
 But, as you will remember, Charlotte 
 had made it a point to practice whenever 
 she felt under the weather, and by the 
 time they had finished half the course 
 Mr. Ogilvie was breathing easily again. 
 " Eh, but she's the bonny player! " he 
 told Mr. Phair that afternoon when 
 Charlotte had qualified for the semi- 
 101
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 finals. " She was a wee bit shaky at the 
 start, but I soon had her steadied down." 
 
 " Where is she now? " asked Mr. 
 Phair. 
 
 " I misdoubt she's watching Lady 
 Salisbury playing her last few holes." 
 
 They found her, very quiet and very 
 thoughtful. " No wonder she's the 
 champion," she was thinking, as Lady 
 Salisbury made a smashing drive right 
 straight for the last hole. " If I could 
 only play like that ! " 
 
 From this melancholy wish she was 
 aroused by the pleasant voice of Mr. 
 Phair who introduced Mrs. Phair to her. 
 
 " Where are you staying, my dear? " 
 asked Mrs. Phair, when they had con- 
 gratulated Charlotte on her showing of 
 the last two days. 
 
 " I'm boarding," she answered as 
 honest as ever; but even while she spoke 
 she couldn't help comparing herself 
 again to the brilliant Lady Salisbury, 
 " who was staying with friends." 
 
 102
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " I want you to come and stay with 
 us," said Mrs. Phair. 
 
 "Oh, thank you, but I couldn't!" 
 gasped Charlotte. 
 
 "But, my dear; why not? " 
 
 " I I only brought a few things with 
 me." 
 
 "I think you're very sensible; but 
 really, that has nothing to do with it. 
 It isn't your clothes, you know, that 
 Mr. Phair and I would like to have with 
 us. It's yourself. You've no idea how 
 interested we are in you, and how we 
 hope you'll win." 
 
 " But I should feel so mortified if I 
 didn't win," protested poor Charlotte. 
 
 " Then let us put it this way," said 
 Mrs. Phair: "if you win you'll come and 
 spend a week or two with us." 
 
 " I should love to," said Charlotte. 
 " But it's a terrible big ' If ! '" 
 
 Next day the contestants had nar- 
 rowed down to four. To Charlotte's 
 relief she wasn't matched against Lady 
 
 103
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Salisbury, but against Mrs. Hall, a vet- 
 eran player from Long Island. Mr. 
 Phair must have whispered a few words 
 to the reporters the day before, because 
 that morning nearly every metropolitan 
 paper had a story in it about the "golfing 
 schoolma'am," and when the day's play 
 began, the gallery which followed Char- 
 lotte was larger than Lady Salisbury's. 
 
 " Oh, I've got to win!" she thought, 
 noting the sympathetic glances and the 
 friendly smiles which greeted her which- 
 ever way she turned; and her heart 
 warmed to these strangers who were 
 evidently wishing her well. 
 
 Under this influence she grandly rose 
 to expectations, helped also by the fact 
 that she had the advantage of youth in 
 her favor. The veteran Mrs. Hall was 
 feeling the effect of the four days' grind, 
 and her play seemed pale when com- 
 pared to the fire of her opponent's. In 
 short, Charlotte won so easily that it 
 surprised herself; and when a friendly 
 
 104
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 cheer greeted the result, she felt that 
 quick, tearful pride which she had al- 
 ways felt at school upon seeing Mr. 
 Chapman come into the room and begin 
 writing on the board: 
 
 ROLL OF HONOR 
 1. CHARLOTTE MARLIN 2. JAMES 
 
 Lady Salisbury also won her match 
 that day. 
 
 " I thought as much," said Mr. Ogilvie 
 in a fine, stony ecstasy. ' Ye'll have to 
 fight it out wi' her ladyship to-morrow. 
 But now I want you to come and let the 
 newspaper lads take your photo. 'Tis a 
 matter I promised them faithfully if 
 they'd let you alone on the links." 
 
 He led her to the south side of the 
 clubhouse, where the photographers 
 were waiting, and a moment later Mr. 
 Phair appeared with Lady Salisbury. 
 The two contestants stood side by side 
 while the camera shutters clicked. Lady 
 Salisbury was a tall, striking type of 
 
 105
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 rather masterful beauty, and there was 
 somewhat more condescension than 
 friendliness in her first manner to Char- 
 lotte the manner of a grand lady who 
 might be talking to a governess. Char- 
 lotte went into her shell directly, her 
 heart fluttering more than a little. 
 
 But that was nothing to the way it 
 fluttered the next morning when she 
 stepped forward to lead off the deciding 
 game. Around them was one of the 
 largest crowds ever assembled on an 
 American golf course, but all that Char- 
 lotte was conscious of at first was the 
 critical eye of Lady Salisbury. 
 
 "I wish she wouldn't stare so!" 
 thought Charlotte, becoming more and 
 more self-conscious every moment. 
 
 She furtively glanced around and saw 
 that everyone else was watching her 
 too; whereat her self -consciousness 
 reached its climax. Her cheeks tingled ; 
 her knees started trembling. 
 
 106
 
 LADY SALISBURY S CRITICAL EYE WAS FOLLOWING HER LIKE A 
 SEARCHLIGHT
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " It's because I'm such a plain thing I" 
 she sighed as she advanced to the ball. 
 
 Lady Salisbury's critical eye was fol- 
 lowing her like a searchlight, and alto- 
 gether it wasn't surprising that after a 
 wild swing Charlotte nearly missed her 
 ball, which rolled forward a few mis- 
 erable feet instead of sailing grandly 
 half way to the hole. 
 
 The gallery gasped. Mr. Ogilvie 
 groaned. And, fortunately for Char- 
 lotte, Lady Salisbury smiled. Yes, for- 
 tunately for Charlotte! And why? Be- 
 cause it only needed Lady Salisbury's 
 smile to drive the blush from her cheeks 
 and to stiffen her knees till they felt as 
 firm as two steel sockets. " I'll show 
 them," she breathed; "yes homely as 
 I am!" 
 
 It was a thought which had won her 
 many a struggle. She was no longer 
 playing Lady Salisbury; she was play- 
 ing her old imagined enemy that 
 wicked fairy who had tiptoed to her 
 107
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 cradle and given her the Marlin nose 
 and chin ! She was no longer Charlotte 
 Marlin; she was the apple-tree girl 
 a little Miss Moses on a pilgrimage, 
 leading herself and her sisters into a 
 promised land where pretty maids count 
 about the same as pretty men, and the 
 average girl can be a heroine just as 
 well as though she were a modern Hebe ! 
 
 Lady Salisbury drove off with a 
 beautiful drive and then Charlotte ad- 
 vanced to her ball again. And, oh, what 
 a silence fell upon the gallery! With 
 deadly precision Charlotte gave the ball 
 such a horrible smack that it swirled in 
 the air as though shot from a gun. It 
 sailed straight down the course and 
 landed thirty yards in front of Lady 
 Salisbury's ! 
 
 ' Ye'll be all right again now," said 
 Mr. Ogilvie, with the exalted assurance 
 of one who knows that his prayers have 
 been answered; and when Charlotte's 
 next shot took her ball to within a few 
 
 108
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 feet of the hole, Mr. Ogilvie privately 
 remarked in an aside to Lady Salis- 
 bury's caddie: 
 
 " Mon, you're beat before you start. 
 You might as well pack up your box and 
 go home !" 
 
 It would take an epic writer to do full 
 justice to that game to tell how Char- 
 lotte first went ahead, how Lady Salis- 
 bury overtook her, how they tied five 
 holes in succession, how Lady Salisbury 
 stared, how Charlotte stared back, how 
 the gallery nudged one another, how 
 Charlotte began to forge ahead, how 
 desperately Lady Salisbury tried to 
 overcome the lead, how she gradually 
 pulled up, and how the gallery thrilled 
 when Charlotte forged ahead again, 
 simply because she could hit the ball 
 harder than Lady Salisbury. 
 
 And why could Charlotte hit the ball 
 so hard? First, because she was fight- 
 ing for a principle; and, second, with- 
 out a doubt, because of Micah's apple 
 
 109
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 tree! As long as she could remember, 
 she had carefully refrained from bury- 
 ing anything at the roots of her tree 
 which might show upon the fruit when 
 the day of harvest came. She had lived 
 simply, sweetly yes, and wisely, even 
 to such little things as avoiding those 
 late hours which are sometimes unavoid- 
 able if one is " staying with friends." 
 
 In short, when Lady Salisbury 
 cracked under the strain at the four- 
 teenth hole (and quite lost her temper 
 for a minute), Charlotte won the next 
 three holes without the least effort in the 
 world, and had not only gained the In- 
 ternational Championship and brought 
 the title back to America, but had also 
 solved her Second Great Sum. 
 
 With all the handicaps in the world 
 against her, with no one to thank but 
 her brave, old-fashioned, little self, she 
 had quietly emerged from the obscurity 
 of Marlin Mills and had made herself 
 famous ! 
 
 no
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE Phairs, listening to no excuses, 
 took Charlotte home and installed her 
 in a beautiful room overlooking the 
 Sound a room and a view each like a 
 scene from fairyland. 
 
 " Some day," thought Charlotte after 
 she had done her hair up for the night, 
 " I shall have a house like this when I 
 have married my millionaire ! " 
 
 She smiled a little as she said it, but 
 she didn't smile long, because the more 
 she thought about it, the more she felt 
 that her Third Great Sum should be 
 solved now or never. " I've got a chance 
 to meet one here," she mused, meaning, 
 of course, a millionaire ; " but if I wait 
 till I get back home " 
 
 For a long time she sat there, dream- 
 ing and thinking, even as she dreamed 
 in
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 and thought over her other two sums 
 before she had found the answers. 
 
 " It's so hard to tell about young 
 men," she told herself. " I might meet 
 someone here to-morrow and think he 
 was all right; but he might be married 
 or he might be engaged, and there's 
 hardly any way of finding out unless 
 you ask. And what would Mrs. Phair 
 think if I went around asking: ' Is he 
 single? Is he engaged? Is he rich? ' 
 She'd know right away what I meant." 
 
 Thus she sat there dreaming and look- 
 ing 1 out at the moonlight on the water, 
 as girls have sat and dreamed since time 
 immemorial and on much the same 
 subject. "Besides," she thought, "if 
 I met him here I might never see him 
 again. If I could only think of some 
 romantic way to make his acquaintance 
 some way he'd never forget ! " Again 
 for a long time she sat and dreamed 
 and then she suddenly laughed, an irre- 
 pressible little laugh. " Wouldn't it be 
 112
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 funny? " she chuckled to herself. And 
 even after she had said her prayers and 
 curled herself up for the night, that irre- 
 pressible little laugh kept rising in the 
 darkness like so many flights of a mid- 
 night lark which had ever such a rollick- 
 ing story to tell. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, a day of 
 rest from sums both great and small. 
 But on Monday afternoon, when Char- 
 lotte strolled over to the Golf Club she 
 had an indescribable but imminent man- 
 ner, as though she were about to embark 
 upon an important enterprise. The 
 verandas were filled, and as soon as she 
 could escape from the congratulations 
 which swept upon her like an admiring 
 tidal wave, she sought Mr. Ogilvie, sent 
 him for their clubs, and took him to the 
 bench near the first tee, where they could 
 watch the players starting over the 
 course. 
 
 " I suppose you know everybody here, 
 Mr. Ogilvie," she said. 
 
 8 113
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Aye, there's not many I miss," he 
 confessed. 
 
 " And some are poor, I suppose, and 
 some are rich? " 
 
 " Aweel, I'd say that some were rich 
 and some were richer. There's not much 
 poverty in yon crowd." 
 
 " Isn't it funny! " said Charlotte with 
 an innocent look. " I never saw a mil- 
 lionaire till I came down here. It's a 
 treat to me just to see them to find out 
 what they look like. Now take that 
 man who's just starting out is he a 
 millionaire? " 
 
 " N-no," said the judgmatic Mr. 
 Ogilvie," " he's what I'd call just ordi- 
 nary rich. But if you'll wait a bit I'll 
 point ye out a few who can count it by 
 the million. . . . 
 
 "There now!" he presently con- 
 tinued. " Ye see that stout old gentle- 
 man in the white shoes ? He's one ! And 
 ye see that wiry mon with the brown 
 mustache? He's one!" 
 
 114
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 For the next five minutes Mr. Ogilvie 
 led Charlotte around the edges of her 
 destiny, and then at last he guided her 
 straight to what she had been all the 
 time hoping she would find. 
 
 " Look now! " he said. " Ye see the 
 young mon who's just starting out? It's 
 Perry Graham; ye've heard o' him! 
 Rich? Eh, rich is no name for it! " 
 
 " Wasn't his father in steamships or 
 something? " asked Charlotte. 
 
 " Aye ! Steamships and railroads and 
 banks and trust companies, and nubbody 
 knows what all! But when he died two 
 years ago, mark ye now, he couldn't take 
 a penny of it with him. So his boy 
 Perry come in for it all." 
 
 " Was that his wife I met on the ver- 
 anda? " asked Charlotte. 
 
 " Perry's wife? Not likely! He isna 
 married." 
 
 " I wonder why.'* 
 
 " Courted to death, I'm thinking," 
 said Mr. Ogilvie dryly. 
 
 115
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Poor thing! " said Charlotte, more 
 dryly than he. " Well, if you're ready 
 now, we'll start." 
 
 They caught up to the highly courted 
 Perry Graham at the fourth hole, and 
 Charlotte had a good chance to look at 
 him. " He's really handsome," she 
 thought, her heart beginning to pound 
 as she thought of what she was going to 
 do. "I'd better do it now," she hur- 
 riedly added, " or I'll be too nervous." 
 
 The fourth hole at New London is a 
 secluded stretch of sward, hidden by a 
 hill from the clubhouse and skirting a 
 grove of yellow pines. Mr. Graham's 
 first shot had only gone about twenty 
 yards, and as he walked toward it Char- 
 lotte very carefully began to take aim 
 at him. At home she had often prac- 
 ticed hitting trees in the orchard; but 
 this, you see, was more difficult because 
 the tree was walking away from her. 
 
 " I don't want to hit him too hard," 
 she thought, " only just enough to tell 
 him how sorry I am, and make him re- 
 
 116
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 member. And then, when Mr. Ogilvie 
 introduces me, and he learns that I'm 
 staying with the Phairs well, anyhow, 
 he'll be one iron in the fire." 
 
 She raised her club for the swing, and 
 just as she was bringing it down, Mr. 
 Graham half turned. 
 
 " Look out! " cried Mr. Ogilvie, sud- 
 denly seeing the danger. 
 
 Whether this shout upset Charlotte 
 she never could tell herself, but when 
 she made her drive she did it as she had 
 always practiced driving. She made it 
 with every ounce of her strength. The 
 ball flew forward with a snarling speed 
 that must have stung the air, and when 
 Mr. Graham instinctively ducked to 
 avoid it, he received it, full brunt, on the 
 side of his forehead. 
 
 "Oh!" gasped Charlotte. "I've 
 killed him!" 
 
 The next moment she was flying to 
 where her victim lay motionless upon 
 the turf, limp and oblivious to all his 
 earthly cares. 
 
 117
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHEN Perry Graham returned to 
 consciousness after being hit by Char- 
 lotte's golf ball, the first thing he saw 
 was a pair of deeply tender eyes look- 
 ing straight into his. The next thing he 
 discovered was the less romantic fact 
 that he was lying flat on the grass with 
 Mr. Ogilvie slapping his palms. 
 
 "What what's the matter?" he 
 weakly asked. 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad! " gasped Charlotte, 
 because for one horrible moment she 
 really believed she had killed him. Then 
 realizing that her gladness must seem 
 out of place to the prostrate Mr. 
 Graham, she hurriedly corrected herself, 
 saying: " I'm so sorry! " 
 
 "What what was it?" he further 
 inquired. 
 
 " I hit you on the head with a ball," 
 
 118
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 said Charlotte in a voice not far from 
 tears. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I remember now." He 
 tried to rise, but Mr. Ogilvie had to help 
 him. 
 
 " We must get him out o' the sun," 
 said Mr. Ogilvie solicitously. " We 
 must try to get him to yon tree by the 
 side of the brook." 
 
 They went, a slowly moving proces- 
 sion, Mr. Graham in the middle, Char- 
 lotte on one side of him and Mr. Ogilvie 
 on the other. Behind them followed the 
 caddies, solemnly staring and forming 
 one of the strangest equations in Char- 
 lotte's Third Great Sum. 
 
 " I'm so sorry ! " she said again. A 
 lump was rising on the side of Mr. 
 Graham's head and looking at this Char- 
 lotte choked a little. 
 
 " It's all right, said Perry. " You 
 couldn't help it, you know." 
 
 An awful feeling of guilt swept over 
 Charlotte. And partly because she felt 
 
 119
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 so blameworthy, and partly because it 
 was the natural thing for her to do, she 
 dipped her handkerchief in the brook 
 and began to bathe the bump on the side 
 of Perry's head. 
 
 " That's better," he said in a stronger 
 voice, and looking at her more atten- 
 tively he added : " You're Miss Marlin, 
 aren't you? " 
 
 " Yes," said Charlotte, her voice 
 growing weaker as his grew stronger. 
 
 " The girl who beat Lady Salisbury 
 last week? " 
 
 " Y-yes." 
 
 " Great work! " he exclaimed. " By 
 Jove, I'm proud you knocked me out." 
 
 He held out his hand, smiling already 
 as he thought of himself telling the story 
 to his friends, and little dreaming what 
 coals of fire he was heaping on poor 
 Charlotte's head. Indeed, if it hadn't 
 been for the listening group around 
 them she would have confessed to him 
 then and there. They started back to 
 120
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the clubhouse, and then for the first time 
 Charlotte began to look attentively at 
 him. 
 
 He was a tall young man with com- 
 manding features, and although his eyes 
 looked tired he had a somewhat peremp- 
 tory manner. 
 
 " I guess it's because he's so rich,*' 
 thought Charlotte. " And to think that 
 I nearly killed him!" For the third 
 time she felt the impulse to confess what 
 she had done ; and for the third time she 
 repressed it. " They'd only stand 
 around and stare and listen," she 
 thought. " I can do it just as well some 
 other time." 
 
 But although she saw him the next 
 day and the next but one and the 
 next after that, somehow Charlotte 
 could never quite bring herself to the 
 point of telling him what she had done. 
 Meantime, whenever he saw her, Perry 
 Graham became more and more inter- 
 ested in her, first because she was Char- 
 
 121
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 lotte, and second because she was a 
 celebrity, and third, without a doubt in 
 the world, because she was a new experi- 
 ence to him and acted like a tonic to his 
 system. 
 
 Because, when all is said and done, 
 it would be unfair to Charlotte if you 
 received the idea that she was nothing 
 except a scheming little thing who went 
 around seeking whom she might devour. 
 Outside of her doing of the Three 
 Famous Sums, she was an unusually 
 sweet and wholesome little body, with 
 deeply tender eyes, expressive eyebrows 
 and a bashful manner, but, oh, so eager 
 to live, so sincerely in love with life ! It 
 was those qualities of naivete and en- 
 thusiasm and sincerity which drew Perry 
 Graham's thoughts more and more often 
 to the girl who had learned her first 
 profound lesson of life from the story of 
 Micah's apple tree. 
 
 The girls he had known before had 
 been brought up in familiarity with 
 122
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 practically everything he could offer 
 them; but it was all so new to Char- 
 lotte, and the interest she felt showed in 
 her cheeks and her eyes a heartborn 
 glow and sparkle which did him good 
 to see. 
 
 " If he hadn't been ' courted to death,' 
 as Mr. Ogilvie says," murmured Char- 
 lotte rather breathlessly one night, " I 
 do believe I'd have a chance. But I 
 must never let him dream that I care for 
 him the least little bit, or he'll think I'm 
 just like all the others." 
 
 So, half consciously and half instinc- 
 tively, whenever Perry showed his grow- 
 ing liking for her, she drew back; and 
 the more she drew back, the more he 
 pressed forward in his pursuit of a new 
 experience; and the more he pressed 
 forward, the longer Charlotte lay awake 
 when the rest of the household were 
 asleep, thinking things over in her sage, 
 old-fashioned way. 
 
 " I wish he didn't have that tired look 
 
 123
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 in his eyes when he thinks nobody is 
 noticing him," she thought one night. 
 " I suppose it's because he's so awfully 
 rich; he's always had everything he 
 wants and he soon gets tired of things. 
 And perhaps if if he had me, he'd soon 
 get tired of me too. . . ." 
 
 She drew a deep sigh. " Neil wasn't 
 that way," she thought. " I'd never 
 have to worry about Neil." 
 
 " It's all so different down here," she 
 continued. " Down here all the sums 
 seem to be in money and things like 
 that, but up home ! Now, take Perry. 
 If he wants to enjoy himself he's got to 
 be dressed just so, and he's got to have 
 his car and somebody to amuse him, 
 and he's got to have a lot of money in 
 his pocket, and then go somewhere and 
 spend it. If he had nothing except one 
 old suit of clothes and was dropped sud- 
 denly in a strange country somewhere 
 without any money, and was told to en- 
 joy himself, he wouldn't have the least 
 
 124
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIBL 
 
 idea of how to go about it. Without 
 money he's nothing." 
 
 She drew another deep sigh. " Neil 
 isn't that way," she thought. " Money 
 isn't everything to Neil." 
 
 " If I could only help Perry in some 
 way," she went on, " I wouldn't feel 
 like this. Because what's a wife for, if 
 she can't help her husband? Now Mr. 
 and Mrs. Phair weren't rich when they 
 married, and so she was able to help him. 
 That's one reason, I guess, why they feel 
 so proud of each other now. But Perry 
 what could I do for Perry ? Nothing ! 
 I'd just feel that I was tagging on 
 behind." 
 
 She sighed again at that. " Neil isn't 
 that way," she thought. " I'd never feel 
 that I was tagging on to Neil." 
 
 " Oh, well," she concluded, " maybe 
 I'm like the fox and the grapes. For 
 one thing, Perry hasn't asked me, and 
 just for that perhaps I think his grapes 
 
 are sour." 
 
 125
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Her mind went back to the time when 
 Neil had asked her and she had run 
 away; and then she began thinking of 
 Aunt Hepzibah, and Micah's tree, and 
 Dame Johnson, and Miss Hawley and 
 the Faithful Seven. And before she 
 knew it she had such a homesick feeling 
 come over her that she cried a little, as 
 homesick girls have cried since time 
 immemorial. 
 
 " I might have known there was 
 something," she thought next morning. 
 
 A letter had come from Aunt Hepzi- 
 bah, and Aunt Hepzibah hadn't been 
 feeling well for the last few days ; " noth- 
 ing much the matter," she wrote, 
 " but I'm dreadful low-spirited one of 
 my spells, I guess." 
 
 " I'm afraid I shall have to go home 
 to-morrow," announced Charlotte, look- 
 ing up from reading her letter. 
 
 Mrs. Phair tried to dissuade her, and 
 so did Perry when he called in the 
 evening. 
 
 126
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 But Charlotte wasn't old-fashioned 
 for nothing. " I feel I ought to go," 
 she said. 
 
 At that, Mrs. Phair gave her husband 
 one of her significant glances, and they 
 went out on the veranda, leaving Perry 
 and Charlotte together. 
 
 " Did you notice him, Joe? " whis- 
 pered Mrs. Phair, outside. 
 
 " Notice who? " whispered back Mr. 
 Phair, with a fine disregard for 
 grammar. 
 
 " Perry Graham, of course! At first 
 I hated to think of Charlotte's going; 
 but now I can see it's the very best thing 
 she could do. It's going to bring Perry 
 to the point." 
 
 "You think so?" 
 
 " Joe, I know it! And the best thing 
 that could happen to him, too. Of 
 course everybody thinks he ought to 
 marry a girl with a lot of money. But 
 that's all nonsense, when he's got so 
 much of his own. Besides, it isn't as if 
 
 127
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Charlotte was nobody. Not after the 
 way she beat Lady Salisbury! And 
 she's a good little thing, and a straight 
 little thing, and wouldn't waste a dollar 
 of Perry's money to the longest day she 
 lived. I can tell he's been thinking about 
 it, too. Trust a woman to know such 
 things 1 Now, Joe, you mark my words : 
 If those two aren't married before 
 Thanksgiving I miss my guess! " 
 
 Perry stayed late that night, and be- 
 fore he left he had promised to take 
 Charlotte to the station next day in time 
 to catch the two o'clock train. 
 
 " We'll start about noon," he said, 
 " so you'll have time to come home and 
 have lunch with me. I'll ask my Cousin 
 Fanny to telephone you first thing in 
 the morning. She's a cousin of my 
 mother's," he explained, " and has been 
 keeping house for me the last two years." 
 
 Mrs. Phair grew very arch after his 
 departure. 
 
 128
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Do you like him, Charlotte? " she 
 suddenly asked next morning. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know." Charlotte was 
 putting her hat on while Perry waited 
 in his car outside. " Why? " 
 
 " Because he's very fond of you." 
 
 ' What makes you think so? " asked 
 Charlotte, blushing for all that. 
 
 ' Why, you dear little goose, any- 
 body can see it. If he wasn't, do you 
 think he'd be taking you home to 
 lunch? " 
 
 Charlotte said nothing; but after she 
 had bade the Phairs good-bye, which 
 wasn't done in a minute or in any per- 
 functory manner, she went out to the 
 waiting car, still blushing, her heart still 
 warm to Mr. and Mrs. Phair, her eyes 
 luminous with youth and love and 
 success. 
 
 " You do look sweet this morning," 
 said Perry as he threw in the starting 
 lever. It was the first time he had paid 
 
 9 129
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 her a direct compliment, and she pre- 
 tended not to notice it. 
 
 " Isn't it a lovely day? " she said 
 instead. 
 
 It was, indeed, a beautiful day, with 
 the sky never so blue and the trees never 
 so green, and the road winding in and 
 out among scenes so picturesque that it 
 reminded Charlotte of a gallery hung 
 with immortal masterpieces. 
 
 She felt so full of happiness at the 
 wonderful day and her wonderful sum- 
 mer that she grew radiant, as though her 
 spark of life had spread into a visible 
 glow. Looking at her Perry suddenly 
 nodded to himself. The next moment 
 he had reached over and taken one of 
 her hands. 
 
 Charlotte dropped from the clouds to 
 the earth, and drew her hand away. 
 
 "Don't! "she said. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " I don't like it." 
 
 She sat as far away from him as she 
 
 180
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 could, her joy in the day overcast by 
 those sage, old-fashioned thoughts which 
 had come to her the other night. By 
 her side, both his hands on the wheel 
 again, Perry seemed to be thinking of 
 something very hard indeed. 
 
 " And now," thought Charlotte, " if 
 he's like I think he is, he'll want to do it 
 all the more. Oh, dear! I shall have 
 to tell him I shall have to tell him how 
 I knocked him down that day on 
 purpose." 
 
 But the more she tried to tell him, the 
 harder it seemed; and a few minutes 
 later, when Perry came out of his silence 
 with the air of a man who has made a 
 great resolution, she weakly decided to 
 let well enough alone. 
 
 " How chatty he is, all at once! " she 
 couldn't help thinking. 
 
 A little later when he began to sing 
 the chorus of an old song, she was al- 
 most too surprised to join in. She did 
 join in, though, and after they had sung 
 
 131
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 all the old songs they knew, Perry 
 laughed aloud and screeched his horn at 
 nothing. " I do feel good this morning, ' ' 
 he said. 
 
 She didn't have the heart to tell him 
 then. 
 
 They rolled upon the ferry, and the 
 boat began to cross the Thames. Under 
 this new excitement Charlotte found 
 enchantment was returning to the day. 
 
 " I told them to have lunch ready at 
 one," he said, looking at his watch. 
 " We'll be just in time." And seeing 
 that Charlotte was admiring the scene 
 on the river, he added: " This is nothing 
 to the view from the house. You wait." 
 
 She didn't have long to wait. 
 
 The Graham house is one of the show 
 places of Pequot Avenue even as Pequot 
 Avenue is one of the show places of Con- 
 necticut; and when the car rolled in at 
 the gate, a feeling that was close to awe 
 stole over Charlotte. She looked out 
 orer the harbor with its yachts anchored 
 
 13?
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 in the blue water; she looked at the 
 grounds around the house, gay with 
 flowers and restful with trees and lawns ; 
 she looked at the house itself a mag- 
 nificent piece of architecture in gray 
 stone and red tiles. A gardener was 
 raking leaves. Another was trimming 
 a flower bed. A butler opened the door. 
 
 " Make yourself at home," said Perry, 
 frowning as he looked around. ' This 
 is the library. I'll be back soon." 
 
 But instead of going into the library 
 she walked along the hall to look at the 
 painting which hung over the fireplace. 
 
 " How beautiful everything is! " she 
 thought. " It's like a picture in a maga- 
 zine, though I never saw a picture one- 
 half as pretty as this." 
 
 She stopped to look at a bronze 
 statuette at the bottom of the stairs, and 
 while she stood there she heard Perry's 
 voice coming from above. 
 
 " I told you one o'clock," he was say- 
 ing in an angry voice. 
 
 133
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 A faint murmur answered him. 
 
 " Well, you thought wrong, and not 
 the first time, either," he retorted. A 
 curious screeching sound interrupted 
 him. " Oh, for heaven's sake 1 " he cried. 
 "Choke that parrot!" 
 
 Downstairs, Charlotte stiffened with 
 
 indignation. " The idea! " she thought. 
 
 ' Talking to his mother's cousin like 
 
 that ! I'd like to hear him talk that way 
 
 to me!" 
 
 When, a few minutes later, Perry 
 strolled out with her to show her the 
 flowers, she had made up her mind ex- 
 actly what to do, and was casting around 
 in her mind for the opening phrase. " I'll 
 soon stop all this! " she told herself. 
 
 Perry had led her to a rose arbor at 
 the back of the house, and was break- 
 ing off large clusters of Dorothy Per- 
 kinses with the prodigal actions of a 
 nervous young man who had something 
 on his mind and didn't know quite how 
 to begin it. 
 
 184
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Say, Charlotte," he said at last, " I 
 think a lot of you ; do you know it? " 
 
 " You shouldn't," she hurriedly 
 answered. 
 
 "Shouldn't I? Why not?" 
 
 " Because I'm going home this after- 
 noon for good/' 
 
 " For good? " he asked, looking 
 puzzled at her emphasis. " What for? " 
 
 Those midnight fears came crowding 
 forward for expression; but midnight 
 fears are not to be lightly related when 
 the sun is shining and a disputatious 
 young man is waiting, frowning, to con- 
 tradict every word you say. 
 
 " What for? " he repeated. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know." 
 
 "But I want to know!" 
 
 "Well, for one thing," said Char- 
 lotte, "I'm happier up there and more 
 useful. Down here, it's like a vacation 
 all the time and, though I don't pretend 
 to know an awful lot, I'm sure that life 
 ought to mean more than that. Then 
 
 135
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 again, down here it's all all make- 
 believe somehow but up there every- 
 thing is so real " She stopped, 
 
 lamely enough, knowing she could never 
 give him the other reasons. How could 
 she tell him, for instance, that she, a 
 little country school-ma'am, didn't feel 
 safe in trusting her happiness to one of 
 the handsomest and richest young men 
 in the whole United States? Or how 
 could she tell him about Neil ? Or about 
 such things as Little Miss Moses and 
 her pilgrimage to the Promised Land? 
 
 " You mean to say this isn't real? " 
 asked Perry, sweeping his arm around 
 to the house and grounds. 
 
 Charlotte buried her face in the roses 
 he had given her and shook her head. 
 
 " And that's why you don't want it," 
 he asked incredulously " because it 
 isn't real?" 
 
 For the moment she almost felt her 
 heart stop beating, so close was she to 
 the realization of her Third Great Sum. 
 
 136
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " But if I won this," she thought, " I 
 believe I'd lose everything else and 
 and well, it isn't worth it ; that's all 1 " 
 
 So, heeding at last the voice of Con- 
 science, she told him how she had 
 knocked him down with the golf ball, 
 and gave him so much food for thought 
 that he was still digesting it in mingled 
 surprise and admiration when he took 
 Charlotte to the station and walked up 
 and down the platform with her while 
 they waited for the train. 
 
 " You're a great little girl; do you 
 know it? " he asked. 
 
 Charlotte buried her face in the roses 
 again, but said nothing. 
 
 " One thing I can't understand, 
 though, is why you did it. Was it just 
 for fun? " 
 
 " N-no," she said. " It it was a 
 sum." 
 
 " A sum? " he asked in astonishment. 
 " What do you mean a sum? " 
 
 She thought it over while they walked 
 
 137
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to the end of the platform, and partly 
 perhaps because it had relieved her to 
 tell him about the golf ball, she told him 
 also of her Three Great Sums told 
 him as quickly as she could, especially 
 toward the end when the train came puf- 
 fing into the station. 
 
 " Great Scott 1 " he muttered when 
 she had ended. 
 
 They hurried to the waiting train 
 together. 
 
 " Good-bye," she said, shyly holding 
 out her hand. 
 
 They shook hands; and the last Char- 
 lotte saw of him he was standing on the 
 platform staring thoughtfully after the 
 departing train.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "I'M glad we parted friends," 
 thought Charlotte, settling back in her 
 seat, " and I'm glad it's all over. It was 
 like that story of the boy who was caught 
 in the rapids while playing in the water ; 
 but, thank goodness! I was able to get 
 back to the shore in time." She re- 
 laxed and let her eyes rest on the 
 smoothly flowing scenery outside. 
 
 " I wonder how 'Aunt Hepzibah is," 
 she murmured to herself. " And Dame 
 Johnson, and Miss Hawley, and the 
 children. And I wonder if Margaret's 
 getting on any better with her husband. 
 And and and I wonder how Neil is. 
 I'll drop in and see Aunt Grace before 
 starting for home. She always knows 
 the news. And perhaps I'll see Neil 
 around somewhere, too." 
 
 The train reached Penfield at a quar- 
 
 139
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 ter past four; and as Charlotte walked 
 up the street to her aunt's house, it gave 
 her a pleasant sense of content to see the 
 people whom she knew so well. 
 
 " I wonder what they'll say about the 
 championship," she thought. " Here 
 comes Mr. Evans. I wonder if he'll 
 want to stop." 
 
 But Mr. Evans, the ice man, passed 
 right on with a friendly " Hello 
 Charlotte." 
 
 " And here comes Deacon Kingsley, 
 as busy as ever," she thought. " Surely 
 he'll say something." 
 
 But all the busy deacon had to 
 say was a busy " How do you do, 
 Charlotte?" 
 
 She began to think it over. " I sup- 
 pose it's because they take me as a mat- 
 ter of course," she said to herself, " just 
 the same as I take them. For all I 
 know, Mr. Evans may be the best fox 
 hunter in Windham County, and 
 Deacon Kingsley, the champion checker 
 
 140
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 player. But they're both so busy with 
 the real sums of life that they haven't 
 time to bother with the little ones, and 
 don't take them seriously. And there 
 I believed I was coming home famous ! " 
 she thought, and added: " Why, I don't 
 believe they've even heard about it." 
 
 But Aunt Grace had heard about it. 
 " How well you're looking! " she said. 
 " No wonder I hardly knew your picture 
 in the paper when Margaret showed it 
 to me." 
 
 So then, of course, they began to talk 
 about Charlotte's pretty cousin. 
 
 "Poor Margaret!" sighed Aunt 
 Grace. " She's not very happy, I'm 
 afraid. Willis was such a good husband 
 at first. But the last year Margaret's 
 been left alone in that big house for 
 weeks at a time. She talks about com- 
 ing home this winter, but I declare I 
 don't know what to do." 
 
 " How's Doctor Kennedy getting 
 along? " asked Charlotte (oh, ever so 
 
 141
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 carelessly I) when she had asked about 
 everybody else. 
 
 For the first time Aunt Grace showed 
 signs of enthusiasm. " He's certainly 
 a clever doctor," she said, " and knows 
 just how to handle my neuralgia. Last 
 May he cured Fred Waller of his 
 jaundice; and you know Mrs. Latham, 
 who was bed-ridden so long? well, he 
 had her up and out again in no time; 
 and since then he's had nearly all the 
 practice he can handle. Last month he 
 rented Doctor Baldwin's old house, fur- 
 nished, but he's still taking his meals at 
 Mrs. Potter's." 
 
 With heightened color Charlotte 
 started up the street toward Mr. Briggs' 
 livery stable and, thinking of the things 
 which her aunt had told her, she looked 
 curiously at the big house on top of the 
 hill where her pretty cousin lived. 
 
 " Poor Margaret ! " she thought. 
 " Willis has probably found her out. 
 'And when a man is attracted to a girl 
 
 142
 
 because of her looks, after a while he's 
 just as apt to be attracted by another 
 girl because of her looks. Perhaps 
 Margaret has found that out." She 
 looked at the big house with growing 
 sympathy. " I guess if the truth were 
 known," she thought, " most of these 
 beautiful heroines end that way. Every- 
 body spoils them up to a certain point, 
 and then the poor girls have to suffer 
 for it. They can have their looks. I'm 
 glad I'm smart, instead " she con- 
 tinued up the street toward Mr. Briggs' 
 livery stable " if I am smart," she 
 thoughtfully added. 
 
 Following this reflection she looked 
 over to where Doctor Baldwin's old 
 house stood, back on its maple-shaded 
 lawn. 
 
 " I'm glad Neil's getting on so well," 
 she thought. Her mind went back to 
 that afternoon when she had run away 
 from him. " I thought I was doing 
 something smart, then," she ruefully 
 
 143
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 laughed to herself. " Poor Neil! Treat- 
 ing him like that just because he wasn't 
 a millionaire ! " 
 
 She walked very slowly, as though 
 she was in no hurry to view Mr. Briggs' 
 enormous mustache, and once, when a 
 car came rushing up the hill behind her, 
 she quickly turned to see who it was. 
 But, though the car made a noise like 
 the Little Rattler, it wasn't the doctor. 
 
 " I wonder what his office hours are," 
 she thought. " I wonder if they're 
 printed on his sign." 
 
 She crossed the street and walked 
 back down the hill, as though she had 
 remembered an errand at Kingsley's 
 store. 
 
 " ' Office hours Five to six, ' " she 
 read on the sign. " Its nearly five now, 
 so I may see him somewhere." 
 
 At Kingsley's she bought a spool of 
 thread and started up the street again, 
 as through she had remembered another 
 errand, this time at Dearnley & Clark's. 
 
 144
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Two cars passed her, Charlotte turning 
 to look at each, but neither was the Little 
 Rattler. " He may be delayed on a 
 case," she thought, and going in to 
 Dearnley & Clark's she bought a yeast 
 cake. 
 
 A number of customers were in the 
 store, and when Charlotte finally came 
 out the Little Rattler was standing in 
 front of the doctor's house, and she 
 caught sight of Neil disappearing 
 through the office door. 
 
 " I guess I'd better go home," she 
 thought, her heart sinking. " If I had 
 
 met him on the street I wouldn't have 
 
 t 
 
 minded. But to go after him in his of- 
 fice, after what I did that afternoon 
 oh, I never, never could! I'll have to 
 wait for another chance." 
 
 Walking with resolution she went to 
 Briggs' Livery Stable, and came out a 
 few minutes later in the red-wheeled 
 buggy, Mr. Briggs seated by her side, 
 
 10 145
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 driving with dignity behind his enor- 
 mous mustache. 
 
 " What a great, silly thing you are," 
 Charlotte told herself, " running away 
 from Neil like this! Perhaps you'll 
 never see him again till some bold 
 thing has gone and married him! " 
 
 " I don't care," thought Charlotte. 
 
 " Yes, you do ! " she almost passion- 
 ately told herself. "Else why have you 
 been thinking about him so much 
 lately? " 
 
 " Well, I don't care," she thought. 
 " A girl has her pride." 
 
 " And how about his? " she asked her- 
 self. " Don't you suppose he had any 
 pride, or any feelings, either, that after- 
 noon when you ran away and left him 
 there because you thought he wasn't 
 good enough? Oh, Charlotte, Char- 
 lotte! " she sadly continued as the buggy 
 crossed the railroad tracks. " You, who 
 used to think yourself so smart, and set 
 yourself such sums ! " 
 
 146
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 ' Yes, and I am smart." 
 
 " Well, then! Well, then! " she im- 
 patiently cried to herself, and the next 
 moment she spoke aloud to Mr. Briggs, 
 saying: " Stop a minute, please! I for- 
 got something at Doctor Kennedy's. 
 We'll have to go back." 
 
 Neil had a number of patients in his 
 reception room when Charlotte walked 
 in, and a number of others came in 
 while she was waiting there. At last 
 her turn arrived, and in she went, a de- 
 mure, old-fashioned figure, but her heart 
 beating " Boom . . . Boom . . . 
 Boom . . ." like a little bass drum. 
 
 " Why, what a stranger! " said Neil, 
 after the first stare of surprise. 
 
 They shook hands in a manner that 
 wasn't far from being formal, and he 
 congratulated her on winning the cham- 
 pionship. Charlotte was seated in the 
 patient's chair, tongue-tied, nervous, 
 wondering why on earth she had ever 
 come, her heart no longer Booming but 
 
 147
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 feeling heavy, out of all proportion to 
 its size. Nor did it help her when Neil 
 stopped talking and waited for her to 
 speak. 
 
 " I I had a letter from Aunt Hep- 
 zibah the other day," began Charlotte. 
 " She wasn't feeling very well. I I 
 was wondering whether you'd come 
 over to Marlin Mills and see her." 
 
 " Why, certainly," said the young 
 physician, glancing at his engagement 
 card. " Any hurry? " 
 
 " Well," hesitated Charlotte. " I was 
 going back myself this afternoon. And 
 I thought, perhaps " 
 
 "I see," he nodded. "We'll run 
 right over as soon as I'm through here. 
 Say, in half an hour will that do? All 
 right; I'll be ready." 
 
 Half an hour later she bravely re- 
 turned to the doctor's. Neil must have 
 seen her from the window. 
 
 " Do you mind waiting another ten 
 minutes, Charlotte? " he asked, coming 
 
 148
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 to the door. "I've got a patient in the 
 office and another one coming." He led 
 her into the front room and placed a 
 chair near the window. " Here's a 
 magazine," he said; " I shan't be long." 
 
 But Charlotte didn't care about read- 
 ing. As soon as Neil had gone, she 
 looked around the room as though it 
 interested her more than any fiction 
 could have done. It was a large room 
 with medallion wall paper, and the fur- 
 niture belonged to that period in which 
 Doctor Baldwin had spent his young 
 manhood when the ladies billowed in 
 crinolines, and the gentlemen supported 
 silk hats, and the little girls wore those 
 plaited pantalettes and rolled their 
 hoops with such decorum. 
 
 Telling herself that she wished to look 
 at the pictures, she started on a breath- 
 less little tour of investigation. 
 
 " What a state everything's in! " she 
 thought. " I don't believe the furniture 
 has been rubbed for years." She patted 
 
 149
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 the carpet with her foot and an eager 
 little whirl of dust came hurrying out to 
 see who was tapping. "Poor Neil!" 
 thought Charlotte. " It's a shame the 
 way he's being neglected! Working 
 hard all day and then coming home to a 
 place like this! If I could only find a 
 duster " 
 
 But that, of course, would never do, 
 and Charlotte was returning to her chair 
 by the window when she happened to 
 look through an open door into the next 
 room. It was a library with a marble 
 fireplace, and a pair of andirons which 
 were probably old when Washington 
 was a boy. But after one look Char- 
 lotte had no eyes for the marble fire- 
 place, nor the old andirons, nor the book- 
 cases which lined the walls. Her glance 
 was held, as though mesmerized, by a 
 silver frame on the desk a frame which 
 held a picture of herself standing side 
 by side with Lady Salisbury! 
 
 "Oh! Oh! Oh! "she gasped. "So 
 
 150
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 he still cares, or he wouldn't have done 
 that! But why does he act so distant 
 and dignified? " 
 
 It didn't take her long to find a plau- 
 sible answer. 
 
 " Yes," she thought, " it must be his 
 pride. It's because I ran away that 
 afternoon; and, of course, he doesn't 
 know that I've changed. I shall have 
 to show him, somehow, that I'm sorry 
 I ran away if I can without being 
 bold." 
 
 She was still thinking it over when 
 Neil's last patient went. 
 
 " Perhaps if I give him an awfully 
 sweet smile when he comes in," she 
 thought" like this." 
 
 But " awfully sweet smiles " had 
 never been in Charlotte's line, and when 
 she practiced one her face felt so funny 
 that she straightened it at once and 
 frowned to herself with her expressive 
 eyebrows, as though to restore the 
 balance. 
 
 151
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 Neil came in at the same moment to 
 say he was ready. 
 
 " He'll think my frown was meant 
 for him," thought Charlotte, her heart 
 sinking again. " Oh dear, how can I 
 let him know? " 
 
 They started in silence, except for 
 the noise which the Little Rattler made, 
 and presently, leaving the town behind, 
 they turned west for Marlin Mills. 
 
 " I can't say anything," thought 
 Charlotte, " because he might not take 
 it right, and then I'd feel humiliated all 
 the rest of my life. Perhaps if I sat 
 a little closer " 
 
 So she sat a little closer, which re- 
 quired more downright courage on 
 Charlotte's part than the whole game 
 which she had played with Lady 
 Salisbury. 
 
 But nothing happened. The Little 
 Rattler roared away as unconcernedly 
 as ever, and Neil kept his eyes fixed on 
 the ruts and turns ahead. 
 
 152
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Perhaps if I sat a little closer 
 yet! " thought poor Charlotte. So she 
 screwed her courage tighter and sat a 
 little closer yet, but the only thing which 
 happened alas ! was that Neil moved 
 farther away, as though to give her 
 room. 
 
 " Crowded? " he shouted above the 
 rattle of the car, his eyes still fixed on 
 the ruts and turns. 
 
 " N-no," said Charlotte in a faint 
 voice. " I'm all right." 
 
 As imperceptibly as possible she re- 
 turned to her end of the seat and sat 
 there, feeling like a rose probably feels 
 when a foot has stepped on it. 
 
 They reached the place where the 
 three abandoned houses stood next to the 
 tumble-down church that church with 
 its roof fallen in and its steeple awry. 
 The sight of it always affected Char- 
 lotte, but this time it fairly depressed 
 her, standing there like an omen, a 
 
 153
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 premonition of what her own future 
 might be. 
 
 " We'll be there in a few minutes 
 now," she thought ; " and if he goes away 
 this time " 
 
 Her mind began to work in desperate 
 haste. 
 
 " I can't propose to him," she thought, 
 a queer little pain in her breast; " and 
 I can't lay my head on his shoulder and 
 and start crying ! Yet I do believe he 
 cares, or why would he have that picture 
 on his desk? " 
 
 " Ask him! " she whispered to herself. 
 
 " I don't like to," she thought. 
 
 " Ask him! " she sternly repeated to 
 herself. " You pride yourself on being 
 smart, don't you? Well, then ask 
 him!" 
 
 She drew a full breath such a full 
 breath that you might have expected 
 her to burst out in loud exclamation. 
 " Neil! " she whispered. 
 
 The Little Rattler drowned it. 
 
 154
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " Neil! " she said in a louder voice. 
 
 But still the Little Rattler drowned 
 it. 
 
 "Neil!" she shouted and, to make 
 sure, she touched his arm as well. 
 
 The young physician immediately 
 slowed the car, but although the Little 
 Rattler somewhat abated its noise he 
 was obliged to shout to make him- 
 self heard. " Did you speak? " he 
 shouted. 
 
 "Yes!" shouted back Charlotte. 
 " When I was waiting for you I saw 
 my picture on your library desk. Why 
 have you got it there? " 
 
 At that he suddenly stopped the 
 engine and such a silence fell that all 
 the world seemed to have hushed itself 
 to listen. For as long as it might have 
 taken you to count ten Neil looked at 
 her, and what he saw in her eyes I can- 
 not tell you, but when he spoke his voice 
 trembled as Charlotte had once heard it 
 tremble before. 
 
 165
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 " You want to know? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes," nodded Charlotte, not trust- 
 ing herself to speak. 
 
 " Because I think and have always 
 thought that you're the greatest little 
 girl in the world. Of course, I know 
 I've got no chance now, but " 
 
 Still Charlotte said nothing, but she 
 raised those expressive eyebrows of hers 
 as though to say: "You've got no 
 chance? . . . Why, Neil, who told 
 you that? " 
 
 The next moment one of his arms 
 had slipped around her waist (which 
 seemed to yield itself to the pressure, 
 quite in the immemorial manner), and 
 his other hand pressed gently against 
 her cheek so that she couldn't turn her 
 head away. 
 
 " Charlotte," he said. " Listen: If I 
 were to tell you I love you, would you 
 run away again? " 
 
 " Not this time," she whispered, find- 
 ing her voice at last. 
 
 156
 
 THE APPLE TREE GIRL 
 
 They kissed, their glances melting to- 
 gether, and in that moment Charlotte 
 knew that the mission of The Apple 
 Tree Girl was ended, that Little Miss 
 Moses had reached the Promised Land. 
 
 157
 
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