riving it said, as he went by, smiling,

"Who is the head of _that_ gang?"

James and Rollo looked at him, wondering what he meant. George laughed.

"What does he mean?" said Rollo.

"He means," said George, laughing, "that we make so much noise and
confusion, that we cannot have any head."

"Any head?" said James.

"Yes,--any master workman."

"Why," said Rollo, "do we need a master workman?"

"No," said George, "I don't believe we do."

So the boys went along until they came to the brook. They crossed the
brook on a bridge of planks, and were very soon under the spreading
branches of the great apple-tree.

[Illustration: The Harvesting Party.]

Insubordination.

The boys immediately began the work of getting down the apples. But,
unluckily, there were but two poles, and they all wanted them. George had
one, and James the other, and Rollo came up to James, and took hold of his
pole, saying,

"Here, James, I will knock them down; you may pick them up and put them in
the wagon."

"No," said James, holding fast to his pole; "no, I'd rather knock them
down."

"No," said Rollo, "I can knock them down better."

"But I got the pole first, and I ought to have it."

Rollo, finding that James was not willing to give up his pole, left him,
and went to George, and asked George to let him have the pole; but George
said he was taller, and could use it better than Rollo.

Rollo was a little out of humor at this, and stood aside and looked on.
James soon got tired of his pole, and laid it down; and then Rollo seized
it, and began knocking the apples off of the tree. But it fatigued him
very much to reach up so high; and, in fact, they all three got tired of
the poles very soon, and began picking up the apples.

But they did not go on any more harmoniously with this than with the
other. After Rollo and James had thrown in several apples, George came and
turned them all out.

"You must not put them in so," said he; "all the good and bad ones
together."

"How must we put them in?" asked Rollo.

"Why, first we must get a load of good, large, whole, round apples, and
then a load of small and wormy ones. We only put the _good_ ones into the
barrels."

"And what do you do with the little ones?" said James.

"O, we give them to the pigs."

"Well," said Rollo, "we can pick them all up together now, and separate
them when we get home."

As he said this, he threw in a handful of small apples among the g