All smile so kind to us; and oh, how good dat warm, nice food taste, we so hongry!" He remembered every detail of his stay.

The red apples that we had given him seemed to have impressed him especially; neither of the boys had ever eaten an apple before.
"Whole big basketful you fetch up from de cellar and say tak all you want," he ran on, still laughing.

"Naver any apple taste like dose, so beeg, so red!" As we sat and talked he told us of his present business and how he had tried the then novel experiment of shipping small lots of New England apples to Italy.

There had been doubt whether the apples would bear the voyage and arrive in sound condition, but he had no trouble when the fruit was carefully selected and well put up.

That led him to inquire about our apple crop and to explain that that was perhaps one of the reasons--not the only one--for his visit.
"I know you raise good apples," he said.