Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/17

 And the beauty of it is, no living soul would be likely to interrupt us, for the history of Marlin Mills is nearly finished; its houses are falling in ruins, and it won't be many years now before the last of the Old Guard will either move or (with greater dignity) be moved away.

To the east of the village is a hill, flat-topped and stony, and on the top of this hill, overlooking the village below, stands the Marlin farm and homestead—the place where my heroine was born.

Charlotte, my heroine, was six years old when she heard the story of Micah's apple tree, and I will tell it to you exactly as it was told to her.

Aunt Hepzibah was out at the time, and Ma'm Bazin was ironing in the kitchen. Ma'm Bazin was their hired girl—a French-Canadienne of about fifty, enormously fat, full of sentiment and blessed with the gift of tongues. That afternoon Charlotte had gone into