He frequently started from home by two or three o'clock
in the morning, and at one time both he and his horse were much
frightened by the screaming of panthers in a narrow pass in the
mountains through which the road led.
Emerson, I believe, has spoken of the apple as the social fruit of
New England. Indeed, what a promoter or abettor of social intercourse
among our rural population the apple has been, the company growing more
merry and unrestrained as soon as the basket of apples was passed
round! When the cider followed, the introduction and good
understanding were complete. Then those rural gatherings that
enlivened the autumn in the country, known as " apple cuts," now, alas!
nearly obsolete, where so many things were cut and dried besides
apples! The larger and more loaded the orchard, the more frequently
the invitations went round and the higher the social and convivial
spirit ran. Ours is eminently a country of the orchard.
Horace Greeley said he had seen no land in which the orchard formed
such a prominent feature in the rural and agricultural districts.
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