The old apple tree stood in the orchard with the other trees, and all
summer long it had stretched out its branches wide to catch the rain
and the sun to make its apples grow round and ripe. Now it was fall,
and on the old apple tree were three great apples as yellow as gold
and larger than any other apples in the whole orchard. The apple tree
stretched and reached as far as it could, until the branch on which
the three gold apples grew hung over the orchard wall. There were the
three great apples, waiting for some one to pick them, and as the wind
blew through the leaves of the apple tree it seemed to sing:
"Here in the orchard are apples three,
Who uses one well shall a treasure see."
And one morning Gerald came down the lane that passed by the orchard
wall. He looked longingly at the three gold apples, wishing, wishing
that he might have one. Just then the wind sang its song again in the
leaves of the apple tree and, _plump_, down to the ground, right at
Gerald's feet, fell one of the three gold apples.
He picked it up and turned it round and round in his hands. How sweet
it smelled, and how mellow and juicy it was! Gerald could think of
nothing so good to do with such a beautiful ripe apple as to eat it.
He put it to his mouth and took a great bite of it, then another bite,
and another. Soon there was nothing left of the apple but the core,
which Gerald threw away. He smacked his lips and went on his way, but
the wind in the apple trees sang, sorrowfully, after him:
"Here in the orchard are apples two,
But gone is the treasure that fell for you."
And after a while Hilda came down the lane that passed by the orchard
wall. She looked up at the two beautiful gold apples that hung on the
branch of the old apple tree, and she listened to the wind as it sang
in the branches to her:
"Here in the orchard are apples two,
A treasure they hold for a child like you."
Then the wind blew harder and, _plump_, an apple fell in the lane
right in front of Hilda.
She picked it up joyfully. She had never seen so large and so golden
an apple. She held it carefully in her clasped hands and thought what
a pity it would be to eat it, because then it would be gone.
"I will keep this gold apple always," Hilda said, and she wrapped it
up in the clean handkerchief that was in her pocket. Then Hilda went
home, and there she laid away in a drawer the gold apple that the old
apple tree had given her, closing the drawer tightly. The apple lay
inside, in the dark, and all wrapped up, for many days, until it
spoiled. And when Hilda next went down the lane and past the orchard,
the wind in the apple tree sang to her:
"Only one apple where once there were two,
Gone is the treasure I gave to you."
Last of all, Rudolph went down the lane one fine fall morning when the
sun was shining warm and the wind was out. There, hanging over the
orchard wall, he saw just one great gold apple that seemed to him the
most beautiful apple that he had ever seen. As he stood looking up at
it, the wind in the apple tree sang to him, and it said:
"Round and gold on the apple tree,
A wonderful treasure, hanging, see!"
Then the wind blew harder, and down fell the last gold apple of the
three into Rudolph's waiting hands.
He held it a long time and looked at it as Gerald and Hilda had,
thinking how good it would be to eat, and how pretty it would be to
look at if he were to save it. Then he decided not to do either of
these things. He took his jack-knife out of his pocket and cut the
gold apple in half, straight across, and exactly in the middle between
the blossom and the stem.
Oh, the surprise that waited for Rudolph inside the apple! There was a
star, and in each point of the star lay a small black seed. Rudolph
carefully took out all the seeds and climbed over the orchard wall,
holding them in his hand. The earth in the orchard was still soft, for
the frost had not yet come. Rudolph made holes in the earth and in
each hole he dropped an apple seed. Then he covered up the seeds and
climbed back over the wall to eat his apple, and then go on his way.
But as Rudolph walked down the lane, the orchard wind followed him,
singing to him from every tree and bush,
"A planted seed is a treasure won.
The work of the apple is now well done."