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Title: The Wonderful Apple-Tree
Author: Dinah M. Mulock Craik [
More Titles by Craik]
COME here, my dear boys, and I'll tell you a fable,
Which you may believe as much as you're able;
It isn't all true, nor all false, I'll be bound--
Of the tree that bears apples all the year round.
There was a Dean Tucker of Gloster city,
Who may have been wise, or worthy, or witty;
But I know nothing of him, the more's the pity,
Save that he was Dean Tucker of Gloster city.
And walking one day with a musing air
In his Deanery garden, close by where
The great cathedral's west window's seen,--
"I'll plant an apple," said Tucker the Dean.
The apple was planted, the apple grew,
A stout young tree, full of leaves not few;
The apple was grafted, the apple bore
Of goodly apples, one, two, three, four.
The old Dean walked in his garden fair,
"I'm glad I planted that young tree there,
Though it was but a shoot, or some old tree's sucker;
I'll taste it to-morrow," said good Dean Tucker.
But lo, in the night when (they say) trees talk,
And some of the liveliest get up and walk,
With fairies abroad for watch and warden--
There was such a commotion in the Dean's garden!
"I will not be gathered," the apple-tree said,
"Was it for this I blossomed so red?
Hung out my fruit all the summer days,
Got so much sunshine, and pleasure and praise?"
"Ah!" interrupted a solemn red plum,
"This is the end to which all of us come;
Last month I was laden with hundreds--but now"--
And he sighed the last little plum off from his bough.
"Nay, friend, take it easy," the pear-tree replied
(A lady-like person against the wall-side).
"Man guards, nurtures, trains us from top down to root:
I think 'tis but fair we should give him our fruit."
"No, I'll not be gathered," the apple resumed,
And shook his young branches, and fluttered and fumed;
"And I'll not drop neither, as some of you drop,
Over-ripe: I'm determined to keep my whole crop.
"And I with"--O'er his branches just then _something_ flew;
It seemed like moth, large and grayish of hue.
But it was a Fairy. Her voice soft did sound,
"Be the tree that bears apples all the year round."
* * * * *
The Dean to his apple-tree, came, full of hope,
But tough was the fruit-stalk as double-twist rope,
And when he had cut it with patience and pain,
He bit just one mouthful--and never again.
"An apple so tasteless, so juiceless, so hard,
Is, sure, good for nought but to bowl in the yard;
The choir-boys may have it." But choir-boys soon found
It was worthless--the tree that bore all the year round.
And Gloster lads climbing the Deanery wall
Were punished, as well might all young thieves appal,
For, clutching the booty for which they did sin,
They bit at the apples--and left their teeth in!
And thus all the year from October till May,
From May till October, the apples shone gay;
But 'twas just outside glitter, for no hand was found
To pluck at the fruit which hung all the year round.
And so till they rotted, those queer apples hung,
The bare boughs and blossoms and ripe fruit among
And in Gloster city it still may be found--
The tree that bears apples all the year round.
NOTE:
The Wonderful Apple-tree: This tree, known among gardeners by the name of "Winter-hanger" or "Forbidden Fruit," was planted by Dean Tucker in 1760. It, or an off shoot from it, still exists in the city of Gloucester.
[The end]
Dinah M. Mulock Craik's poem: Wonderful Apple-Tree
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