THE YOUTHS CABINET.

Blossoms and Fruit.

 

BY THE MAN WITH THE MAGNET.

BLOSsoms

ast summer I passed through an
orchard belonging to my kind

and obliging friend Captain Nash.

It was in the month of June,

that sweet and charming month, when
the apple trees are in bloom, filling the
air with their delicious fragrance. Those

who have never seen an orchard of

apple trees at this season of the year,
cannot imagine how much beauty there
is in these blossoms, and how much
I was
delighted with the appearance of the

Sweetness there is in their odor.

orchard. So was the captain, who was
with me at the time, We seated our-

selves under the shadow of one of these

trees, and talked together, for a good
while, about the kindness and love of
God, in Scattering everywhere in the
earth so much beauty and loveliness,
We both agreed, too, that there was a
fine prospect of fruit in the autumn. |
was very glad of this prospect, for I
knew very well the quality of the fruit
Which might be expected from these
trees. I knew that the captain had

 

| taken a great deal of pains in grafting

his trees, and that among the number
were the golden pippin, the spitzenberg,
the bellflower, and the greening—apples
which make one’s mouth water, only to
think of them.

Well, some months after the flowering
season had passed, I visited that orchard
again. At this time, as before, the cap-
tain was my companion. Alas! what a
different aspect these trees presented,
from the one we had anticipated in the
early summer. There was only here
and there an apple, in the whole or-
chard. I could have carried away al-
most the whole of them in a small
basket. Indeed, I am not sure but the
capacious pockets of the captain’s pea-
jacket would have held them all.

“But what was the reason of this?”
you inquire. I hardly know. There
was some cold weather in the early part
of the month of June. Perhaps the
flowers were chilled, and that the germs
of the fruit were blasted in this way.

Possibly the caterpillars destroyed the