Читать книгу Our Little Tot's Own Book of Pretty Pictures, Charming Stories, and Pleasing Rhymes and Jingles - Anonymous - Страница 5
ОглавлениеII.-THE OLD APPLE-TREE.
There was an old apple-tree in the orchard that was the oldest tree in the town. It overtopped the house, and the trunk was very big and brown and rough; but O, the millions of fine green leaves, as soft and smooth as silk, that it held up in the summer air!
In the spring it was gay with pink and white blossoms, and then for days the tree would be all alive with the great, black-belted bees. A little later those sweet blossoms would fall off in a rosy rain, and Myra and I would stand under the old apple-tree and try to catch the little, fluttering things in our apron! And then, later still, came little apples, very sour at first, but slowly sweetening until it seemed to me that those juicy, golden-green apples tasted the best of any fruit in all the world! My apron-pockets were always bursting with them!
There was a famous horse up in the old tree. It could only be reached by means of a ladder placed against the old tree’s stout trunk! A strange horse, you would call him, but O, the famous rides that I have had on that horse’s broad, brown back! The name of the horse was “General.”
Up among the leaves where the sunshine played hide-and-seek was one dear bough that was just broad enough and just crooked enough to form a nice seat. Another bough bent round just in the very place to form a most comfortable back to that seat. A pair of stirrups made of rope, some rope reins tied to the trunk of the tree, and there was my horse, “all saddled and all bridled!”
I put my feet into the stirrups, shake my bridle-reins and cry, “Get up, General!”
The bough would sway a little, and I and the birds would be off together, swinging and singing, up in a fair green world where there was no one to disturb nest or little rider! The birds would sing to me, and I would sing to them, and which of those little singers was the happiest, I do not know!
But I do know that my little heart was full of glee and joy to the brim!
Percia V. White.
RIDING “GENERAL.”
