For it
was apple time in the land! The evanescent harvest apples were long
since gone, the snows were past their best, the pippins were mellowing
under the sharp persuasion of the nippy, frosty nights and the brave
gallantry of the sunny days. In this ancient warfare between the frosty
nights and the gallant sunny days the apples ripened rapidly; and well
that they should, for the warfare could not be for long. Already in the
early morning hours the vanguard of winter's fierce hosts was to be seen
flaunting its hoary banners even in the very face of the gallant sun
so bravely making stand against it. But it was the time of the year in
which men felt it good to be alive, for there was in the air that
tang that gives speed to the blood, spring to the muscle, edge to the
appetite, courage to the soul, and zest to life--the apple time of the
year.
It was in apple time that Cameron came back to the farm. Under
compulsion of Mandy, Haley had found it necessary to drive into the
city for some things for the "women folk" and, being in the city, he had
called for Cameron and had brought him out. Under compulsion, not at all
because Haley was indifferent to the prospect of a visit from his former
hired man, not alone because the fall plowing was pressing and the
threshing gang was in the neighbourhood, but chiefly because, through
the channel of Dr.
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