“I hadn’t supposed great strength was necessary to pick a few apples.”
“He’s a very good boy, too, Aunt Grenertsen.”
“Glad to hear it. Well, bring your paragon in and go to work.”
At last Johnny Blossom and Tellef stood under the apple tree with a big basket.
My, oh, my! Just look at all the apples! There must be fully a half bushel—a good many for such a little old tree.
“You go up in the tree and shake it,” said Johnny.
“Here I go,” responded Tellef. He sprang to the tree, gripped the trunk with his knees and was up in a trice. Vigorous shaking. Five big apples thumped to the ground.
“Five big ones and all of them bruised, so they are for us,” shouted Johnny Blossom; and the apples vanished inside his blouse.
“Well, but I want some,” answered Tellef from the tree.
“Of course. I just put them in here to keep.”
Another shaking of the branches. Besides some decayed ones, four good apples fell, hitting the ground with such force that these, too, were crushed or cracked. Tellef was down on the instant. My, oh, my! but they were delicious apples. Neither of the boys had ever tasted any equal to them. A sharp knock sounded on Aunt Grenertsen’s window, and Johnny hurried over there.
“It seems to me you do nothing but eat,” came through the window.
“Oh, no. These are some that got smashed and you said we might eat those.”
“Such rough shaking, I don’t like. You must pick the apples.”
Up the tree went both the boys. They picked six apples, but found it impossible to reach any more. All the others hung upon thin old branches that cracked if you but touched them, and would by no means bear a boy’s weight. The boys tried and tried to get the apples, but the tempting things hung exasperatingly out of reach.
“No use,” said Johnny. “I’ll have to stand under the tree and hold the basket, while you shake the apples into it. Then they won’t whack on the ground and bruise themselves.”
First, however, the six perfect apples were laid carefully upon the porch steps.
John held the basket under a branch while Tellef shook it. Eight apples bounced and rolled in the garden path, but not one fell into the basket and not one but showed a bruise or a split.
“What a stupid you are to shake them off that way!” exclaimed Johnny.