CHAPTER TEN.
MY FIRST APPLE.
I had been working for about half an hour longer when I found I couldget no more, and this time I went a little way and called Ike from wherehe was at work to move the ladder for me.
He came in a surly way, and then stared at me.
"Want me to move the ladder? Why can't yer move it yerself?" hegrumbled.
"You know I'm not strong enough," I said.
"Ho! that's it, is it? I thought you were such a great big cock-a-hoopsort of a chap that you could do anything. Well, where's it to be?"
"Round the other side, I think," I said.
"No; this here's best," he cried, and whisking up the ladder I stoodadmiring his great brown arms and the play of the muscles as he carriedthe ladder as if it had been a straw, and planted it, after thrustingthe intervening boughs aside with the top to get it against a stoutlimb.
"There you are, my lad," he said. "Now, are you satisfied?"
"Yes; and thank you, Ike," I said quickly. "And I'm very much obligedto you about wanting to take the blame upon yourself about the brokenladder and--"
"Here, I can't stand listening to speeches with my plants a-shrivellingup in the sun. Call me if you wants me agen."
He gave me a curious look and went away, leaving me with the impressionthat I had thoroughly offended him now, and that I was a most unluckyboy.
I climbed the ladder again, picking as fast as I could to make up forlost time; and as the sun shone so hotly and I kept on picking thebeautiful fruit with the bough giving and swaying so easily, I began tofeel more at ease once more. While I picked and filled and emptied mybasket I began to reason with myself and to think that after all MrBrownsmith would not be so very angry with me if I went to him boldlyand told the truth.
This thought cheered me wonderfully, and I was busily working away whenI heard the whistling and scratching noise made by somebody walkingsharply through the gooseberry bushes, and, looking round, there was Ikecarrying another ladder, and Shock coming along loaded with baskets,evidently to go on picking apples from one of the neighbouring trees.
They neither of them spoke. Ike planted the ladder ready, and Shocktook a basket and ran up, and was hard at work by the time Ike was outof sight.
I had hardly spoken to the boy since I had found him eating snails; andas I went on picking with my back to him, and thinking of the poor childbeing found crawling in the road and brought in a basket, and of hisalways running away from the workhouse, I felt a kind of pity for him,and determined to try if I could not help him, when all at once I felt asharp pain accompanying a severe blow on the leg, as if some one hadthrown a stone at me.
I turned sharply round, holding tightly with one hand; but Shock's backwas turned to me, and he was picking apples most diligently.
I looked about, and there was no one else near, the trees being toosmall for anyone to hide behind their trunks. Shock did not look in mydirection, but worked away, and I at last, as the sting grew less, wenton with mine.
"I know it was him," I said to myself angrily. "If I catch him at it--"
I made some kind of mental vow about what I would do, finished fillingmy basket, went down and emptied it, and ascended the ladder again justas he was doing the same, but I might have been a hundred miles away forall the notice he took of me.
I had just begun picking again, and was glancing over my shoulder to seeif he was going to play any antics, when he began to ascend his ladder,and I went on.
_Thump_!
A big lump of earth struck me right in the back, and as I looked angrilyround I saw Shock fall from the top to the bottom of his ladder, and Ifelt that horrible sensation that people call your heart in your mouth.
He rose to a sitting position, put his hand to his head, and shoutedout:
"Who's that throwing lumps?"
Nobody answered; and as I saw him run up the ladder again it occurred tome that it was more a slip down than a fall from the ladder, and I hadjust come to this conclusion when, seeing that I was watching him, hemade me start and cling tightly, for he suddenly fell again.
It was like lightning almost. One moment he was high up on the ladder,the next he was at the foot; but this time I was able to make out thathe guided himself with his arms and his legs, and that it was reallymore a slide down than a fall.
I turned from him in disgust, annoyed with myself for letting him cheatme into the belief that he had met with an accident, and went on pickingapples.
"He's no better than a monkey," I said to myself.
_Whiz_!
An apple came so close to my ear, thrown with great violence, that Ifelt it almost brush me, and I turned so sharply round that I swungmyself off the ladder, and had I not clung tightly by my hands I musthave fallen.
As it was, the ladder turned right round, in spite of its broadly setfoot, and I hung beneath it, while my half-filled basket was in my placeat the top.
The distance was not great, but I felt startled as I hung there, when,to my utter astonishment, Shock threw himself round, twisted his ladder,and hung beneath just as I did, and then went down by his hands fromround to round of the ladder, turned it back, ran up again, and went onpicking apples as if nothing was wrong.
I could not do as he did; I had not muscle enough in my arms, but Ithrew my legs round the tottering ladder, and slid down, turned it backto its old place, went up quickly, and again picked away.
For the next quarter of an hour all was very quiet, and I had justfinished getting all I could when Ike came along.
I started guiltily, for I thought it was Old Brownsmith, but the voicereassured me, and I felt reprieved for the moment as Ike said:
"Want the ladder moved?"
I carried my basket down, and emptied it while Ike changed the positionof the ladder.
"There you are," he said. "There's plenty for you up yonder. Come,you're getting on. Yes; and clean picked, too," he continued, givingthe basket a shake. "Now you, Shock, come down, and I'll move yourn."
The boy got down sullenly, and turned his back to me while the ladderwas moved, so that this time we were working at different trees, butnearly facing each other.
Ike gave me a nod, and went off again to his work; and as I turned myhead to gaze after him, _whack_ came a little apple, and struck me onthe side of the ear.
I was so much annoyed that I picked a big one out of my basket and threwit at Shock with all my might, disturbing my balance so that I had tohold on tightly with one hand.
My shot did not go anywhere near the boy, but he fell from the ladder,hanging by one leg in a horrible way, his head down, and his handsfeeling about and stretching here and there, as if to get hold ofsomething to draw him up. He swung about and uttered a low animal-likemoan of distress that horrified me, and sliding down my ladder,unwilling to call for aid, I ran to help him myself.
He was squinting frightfully, and lay back head downwards, and armsoutstretched on the ladder as I began to ascend. His face was flushed,his mouth open, and his tongue out. In fact, he looked as if he werebeing strangled by his position, and, trembling with eagerness, I wentup four rounds, when _smack_! _crack_! I received a blow on each earthat sent me down.
When I recovered myself, my cheeks tingling, and my heart throbbing withwrath, Shock had thrown himself up again, and, with his back to me, waspicking away at the apples as if nothing had been wrong.
"You see if I trust you again, my fine fellow," I cried in a rage; and,picking up a lot of clods, I began to pelt him as hard as I could,missing him half the time, but giving him several sharp blows on theback and head.
It was the last shot that hit him on the head, and the clod was big andcakey, hitting him so hard that it flew to pieces like a shell.
It must have hurt him, for he slid down and came at me fiercely with hismouth open, and showing his teeth like a dog.
I daresay at another time, as he was much bigger and stronger than Iwas, I should have turned and fled; but just t
hen I was so hot andexcited that I went at him with my doubled fists, and for the next fiveminutes we were fighting furiously, every now and then engaged in astruggle, and going down to continue it upon the ground.
I fell heavily several times, and was getting the worst of it when, allat once, I managed to get one hand free, and in my despair struck him ashard as I could.
The blow must have been a hard one, for Shock staggered back, caught hisfoot in one of the gooseberry bushes, and fell with a crash into one ofthem, splitting the bush open.
I was half blind with rage, and smarting with blows; and as he seemed tobe coming at me again, I made another dash at him, striking out rightand left with my arms going like a windmill, till I was checked suddenlyby being lifted from the ground, and a hoarse voice uttered atremendous--"Haw, haw, haw!"
I had felt this last time that Shock was very big and strong, hence ittook me some moments to realise that the boy had crept out of thegooseberry bush and had shuffled away, while it was Ike whom I wasbelabouring and drumming with all my might.
"Well done, little one," he cried. "There, cool down. Shock's give in.You've whacked him. Here's the ganger coming. Get on with your work."
Shock ran by us with a rush, mounted his ladder, and I hurried up mine,to go on picking as well, while, panting and hot, smarting with blowsand anger, I wondered what Old Brownsmith would say to me for what I haddone.
He only went along the path, however, with his cats, as he saw that Ikewas there, and the apple-picking went on till he was out of sight.
"Ah! you're only a bit dirty," said Ike to me rather less roughly thanusual. "Come down and I'll give you a brush."
"There you are," he said, after performing the task for me. "Was he upto his larks with you?"
"Yes," I said; "he has been pelting me, and he pretended to fall; andwhen I went to help him he struck me, and I couldn't stand that."
"So you licked him well? That's right, boy. He won't do it again. Ifhe does, give it him, and teach him better. I don't like fighting tillyou're obliged; but when you are obliged--hit hard's my motter, andthat's what you've done by him."
Of course I knew that _that_ was what I had done by him, but I felt verysorry all the same, for I knew I had hurt Shock a good deal, and I hadhurt myself; and somehow, as Ike went away chuckling and rubbing his bighands down his sides, it seemed very cruel of him to laugh.
Everything seemed to have gone so wrong, and I was in such trouble, thatneither the sunshine nor the beauty of the apples gave me the leastsatisfaction.
I kept on picking, expecting every moment that Shock would begin again,and I kept a watchful eye upon him; but he threw no more lumps of earthor apples, and only went on picking as quickly as he could, and Inoticed that he always had his face turned from me.
"I do nothing but offend people," I thought, as I worked away, and Ifelt as sure as could be that this boy would contrive pitfalls for meand play me tricks, making my life quite a burden. In fact, I becamevery imaginative, as boys of my age often will, and instead of trying totake things in the manly English spirit that should be the aim of everylad, I grew more and more depressed.
Just when I was at my worst, and I was thinking what an unlucky boy Iwas, I heard a sound, followed by another. The nearest representationof the sounds are these--_Quack_--_craunche_.
"Why, he's eating apples," I said to myself, as I went down my ladder,emptied my basket, and went up again.
Now some who read this will think it a strange thing, but, though I hadbeen busy all that morning handling beautiful little pippins, long,rosy, and flat-topped, I had never even thought of tasting one.
Like fruit? I loved it; but I was so intent upon my work, so eager todo it well, and I had had so much to think about, that it seemed to comeupon me like a surprise that the apples were good to eat.
Now that Shock had begun, and was crunching away famously as he worked,I suddenly found that, though I was not so hot as I was after myencounter, my mouth felt dry. I was very thirsty, and those applesseemed to be the most tempting of any I had ever seen in my life.
But I would not touch one. I went higher up the ladder and picked; thenhigher and higher till I was close to the top, holding on by the tallstem of the tree picking some of the ripest apples I had yet gathered,and swaying with a pleasant motion every time I reached here or there topick one at the end of a twig.
What beauties they seemed, and how, while those that grew in the shadyparts under the leaves, were of a delicate green, the ones I had pickedfrom out in the full sunshine were dark and ruddy and bronzed! How theyclustered together too, out here in the top of the tree, so thickly thatit seemed as if I should never get them all.
But by degrees I reached up and up where I could not take the basket,and thrust the apples into my breast and pockets. One I had atremendous job to reach, after going a little lower to where my baskethung to empty my pockets before climbing again. It was a splendidfellow, the biggest yet, and growing right at the top of a twig.
It seemed dangerous to get up there, for it meant holding on by thebranch, and standing on the very top round of the ladder, and Ihesitated. Still I did not like to be beaten, and with the branchbending I held on and went up and up, till I stood right at the top ofthe ladder, and then cautiously raising my hand I was about to reach upat and try to pick the apple, when something induced me to turn my headand look in the direction of Shock's tree.
Sure enough he was watching me. I saw his face right up in the top; buthe turned it quickly, and there was a rustle and a crack as if he hadnearly fallen.
For a few moments this unsteadied me, and for the first time I began tothink that I was running great risks, and that I should fall. Sopeculiar was the feeling that I clung tightly to the swaying bendingbranch and shut my eyes.
The feeling went off as quickly as it came, for I set my teeth, and,knowing that Shock was watching me, determined that he should not see Iwas afraid.
The next moment I was reaching up cautiously, and by degrees got my handjust under the apple, but could get no higher. My head was thrown back,the branch bending towards me, and my feet on the top round, so that Iwas leaning back far out of the perpendicular, and the more I tried toget that pippin, and could not reach, the more bright and beautiful itlooked.
I forgot all about the danger, for Shock was watching me, and I wouldhave it; and as I strained up I at last was able to touch it with thetips of my fingers, for my feet were pressing the branch one way, myhands drawing it the other, till it came lower, lower, lower, my fingersgrasped the apple--more and more, and at last, when I felt that I couldbear the strain no longer, the stalk gave way, and the apple droppedbetween the twig and my hand.
Then for a moment, as I grasped it, I felt as if I was going to lose myfooting, and hang off the ladder. If I did, the bough was so thin thatI knew it would break, and it was only by exerting all my strength thatI held on.
At last, lowering hand below hand, I got to be a little more upright.My feet were firmer on the ladder, and I was able to take a step down.
Another few moments and, with a sigh of relief at my escape from a heavyfall--for it really was an escape--I thrust the beautiful apple in mybreast and descended to my basket, gave a final glance round to see ifthere was any more fruit within reach, found there was not, and so Iwent to the foot of the ladder, emptied my basket, took out the applefrom my breast, and found that it was as beautiful as it had seemed upthere.
"I must have you," I thought, and, turning the rosy side towards me, Itook a tremendous bite out of it, a rich sweet juicy bite, and thenstood staring stupidly, for Old Brownsmith was standing there with hiscats, looking at me in a quiet serious way.