t on, and was a great
contest of wits.

[Illustration: THE EARLY APPLES.]

Theodora's was the only hoard that escaped detection during the entire
summer and autumn. She had her apples hidden in an empty bee-hive, which
stood out in the garden under the "bee-shed" about midway in the row of
thirteen hives. The most of us were a little afraid of the bees, but
Theodora was one of those persons whom bees seem never to sting. She was
accustomed to care for them, and thus to be about the hives a great
deal. Not one of us happened to think of that empty bee-hive. The shed
and some lilac shrubs concealed the place from the house; and Doad went
unsuspected to and from the hive, which she kept filled with apples. We
spent hours in searching for her hoard, but did not learn where she had
concealed it until she told us herself, two years afterwards.

Ellen had the worst fortune of us all. We found her hoard regularly
every few days. At first she hid it in the wagon-house, then up garret,
and afterward in the wood-shed; but no sooner would she accumulate a
little stock of apples than some one of us, who had spied on her goings
and comings, would rob her. Even Wealthy found Nell's hoard once, and
robbed it of nearly a half-bushel of apples. Nell always bore her losses
good-denature, and obtained satisfaction occasionally by plundering
Halse and me.

I remember that my first hoard was placed in the very high, thick
"double" wall of the orchard. I loosened and removed a stone from the
orchard side of the wall, and then took out the small inside stones from
behind it until I had made a cavity sufficient to hold nearly a bushel.
Into this cavity I put my apples, and then fitted the outer stone back
into its place, thus making the wall look as if it had not been
disturbed. This device protected my apples for nearly a fortnight; but
at length Ellen, who was on my track, observed me disappear suspiciously
behind the wall one day, and an hour or two later took occasion to
reconnoiter the place where I had disappeared.

She passed the hidden cavity several times, and would not have
discovered it, if she had not happened to smell the mellow August
Pippins of my hoard. Guided by the fragrance which they emitted, she
examined the wall more closely, and finally found the loose stone. When
I went to my preserve, after we had milked the cows that evening, I
found only the empty hole in the wall.

I next essayed to conceal my hoard in the gro