Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/20

 rap-a-rap-rap on the door. He has a pack on his back and they see it is Micah, the peddler, who pass' that way every winter. In those days, my dear, peddlers are well known for the money they carry, because the world she is poor and honest, and the banks have not yet come.

"Micah asks if he can stay for the night, and if nobody ever sees him again, nobody knows and nobody cares. For a peddler he is here to-day and gone to-morrow. It is only known that a few days later Meester Sowers pays his tax and other debts, and no one notices that there is one spot in the orchard where he and his sons they will never cast their eye.

"The months they come and the months they go, till the frost she falls again. Then the neighbors drop in to say the good word and stroll in the orchard to fill their pockets from the bittersweet tree. But presently they