The Bennington Banner

ONE THING GEORGE DIDN'T KNOW

They were walking on a hillside overlooking Lake Champlain.

"George, dear," she said, "how charming it is to get away from the heated city and its artificial life and spend a few weeks among these simple rustics. What are those little green things growing on those trees? They look like gooseberries."

"Those are apples, Mabel."

"George, how absurd you are! Apples? Those little things! I'm going to ask this wee country girl and see."

"Nonsense, Mabel, don't display your ignorance. Don't you think I know? Those are apples in their first stage, far from ripe yet, small and green. Gooseberries don't grow on trees, anyway; they grow on bushes."

"Dear George, how clever you are to know all those things. Where did you learn it all? How heavily the trees are loaded! All but one. Look at that one, George. It has no apples at all on it. What is the reason of that, dear?"

"Well, really, Mabel, I know a good deal about things in general, but it's a little difficult to say just why that tree has no apples. I presume the farmer has picked them all."

"But, George, how could the apples on one tree ripen so far ahead of the other?"

"Perhaps he likes them green."

"Then why not pick some off the other trees?"

"What a little tease it is," said he. "Perhaps the wind shook them off; perhaps caterpillars destroyed the buds, perhaps a dozen things, dear. Agriculture is a precarious pursuit. About as safe as poker, I should say."

"Now, George, dear, just let me see if this little girl knows."

"Little girl, can you tell me why this tree has not a single apple on it, while the others are fairly loaded?"

"Cauth itth not an apple tree, ma'am."

And it wasn't.—New York Tribune.