rchard will
not bear one bushel of good apples or peaches. I don't know why, for in
father's time it bore wagonloads of choice fruit."

"Well, John," said his wife, "you know father used to give the trees a
great deal of attention."

But John grumbled to himself as he went on with his digging. He dug
three feet deep around the first tree, but no treasure was there. He
went to the next tree, but found nothing; then to the next and the next,
until he had dug around every tree in the orchard. He dug and dug, but
no pot of gold did he find.

II

The neighbors thought that John was acting queerly. They told other
people, who came to see what he was doing.

They would sit on the fence and make sly jokes about digging for hidden
treasure. They called the orchard "Jacobs' folly."

Soon John did not like to be seen in the orchard. He did not like to
meet his neighbors. They would laugh and say, "Well, John, how much
money did you get from the holes?"

This made John angry. At last he said, "I will sell the place and move
away."

"Oh, no," said the wife, "this has always been our home, and I cannot
think of leaving it. Go and fill the holes; then the neighbors will stop
laughing. Perhaps we shall have a little fruit this year, too. The heaps
of earth have stood in wind and frost for months, and that will help the
trees."

John did as his wife told him. He filled the holes with earth and
smoothed it over as level as before. By and by everybody forgot "Jacobs'
folly."

Soon the spring came. April was warm, and the trees burst into bloom.

"Mary," said John one bright spring day, "don't you think the blossoms
are finer than usual this year?"

"Yes, they look as they did when your father was alive," said his wife.

[Illustration: John's trees full of fruit]

By and by, the blooms fell, leaving a million little green apples and
peaches. Summer passed and autumn followed. The branches of the old
trees could hardly hold up all the fine fruit on them.

Now the neighbors came, not to make fun, but to praise. "How did you do
it?" they asked.

"The trees were old and needed attention," said John. "By turning the
soil and letting in the air, I gave them strength to bear fruit. I have
found the treasure after all, and I have learned a lesson. Tilling the
soil well is the way to get treasure from it."

--GRIMM.

THE LITTLE BROWN BROTHER

Little brown brother, oh! little brown brother,
Are you awake