ring the apple-orchard, often when the
trees are powdered with hoarfrost and snow lies deep upon the ground.
One of the company carries a large flask filled with cider and
tastefully decorated with holly-branches; and when every one has
advanced about ten paces from the choicest tree, rustic pipes made from
the hollow boughs of elder are played upon by young men, while Echo
repeats the strain, and it seems as if fairy-musicians responded in low,
sweet tones from some neighboring wood or hill. Then bursts forth a
chorus of loud and sonorous voices while the cider-flask is being
emptied of its contents around the tree, and all sing some such words
as these:

"'"Here's to thee, old apple tree!
Long mayest thou grow.
And long mayest thou blow, and ripen the apples that hang on
thy bough!

"'"This full can of apple wine,
Old tree, be thine:
It will cheer thee and warm thee amid the deep snow;

"'"Till the goldfinch--fond bird!--
In the orchard is heard
Singing blithe 'mid the blossoms that whiten thy bough."'"

"But what did they do it for?" asked Malcolm, who enjoyed the account as
much as the others. "There doesn't seem to be any sense in it."

"There _is_ no sense in it," replied his governess, "but these ignorant
people had inherited the custom from their fathers and grandfathers, and
they really believed--and perhaps still believe--that this attention
would be sure to bring a fine crop of apples. We are distinctly told,
though, that 'it is God that giveth the increase;' and to him alone
belong the fruits of the earth. Sometimes the crop is so great that the
trees fairly bend over with the weight of the fruit, and there is an old
English saying: 'The more apples the tree bears, the more she bows to
the folk.'"

"How funny!" laughed Edith. "Does the apple tree move its head, Miss
Harson?"

"It cannot go quite so far as that," was the reply; "it just stays bent
over like a person carrying a heavy burden. The branches of overladen
fruit trees are sometimes propped up with long poles to keep them from
breaking. There is another strange custom, which used to be practiced on
New Year's eve. It was called 'Apple-Howling,' and a troop of boys
visited the different orchards--which would scarcely have been desirable
when the apples were ripe--and, forming a ring around the trees,
repeated these words: