Chapter 4 when the apples are ripe

midnight.The moon had just risen from behind a row of tall linden trees lined up behind the fence. Through the tops of the fruit trees, it shone on the back wall of a small building opposite, and on the lower part, which was separated from the garden by a low fence. The white curtain behind the small low window in the building looks more and more swaying when the moonlight shines on it.At that moment, it seemed as if a small hand had reached into the middle of the curtain and gently parted the tape.Then, a young girl suddenly appeared in front of the window.She was wearing a white kerchief on her head, and she was holding up a small women's watch to the moonlight, as if carefully observing the movement of the hands on the watch.At this time, the bell tower in the distance struck exactly quarter to eleven.

Downstairs, on the paths and lawns among the garden bushes, it was dark and silent; only a weasel crouched on the plum tree, eating its supper, scratching the tree with its sharp claws. Pi made a rustling sound.But suddenly, it raised its cheeks vigilantly: on the grill outside the garden, there was a chirping sound, and a big head poked out.The weasel jumped to the ground and disappeared between the houses; but a short, little boy slowly rolled in from outside the garden. Opposite the plum tree, not far from the fence, stood an apple tree not very tall; the fruit was just ripe, and the branches were so full that they were almost not broken.The little guy must know this tree very well, I saw him pointing his head at it with a smile while walking around it on tiptoe.Then he stood motionless for a while, pricked up his ears to listen around, then untied a large sack from his body, and carefully began to climb the tree with the sack.Not long after, he was squatting among the branches of the tree, and one after another, the apples ran into his pocket at a fast and even pace.

Suddenly, an apple accidentally fell to the ground and rolled into a small tree a few steps away. In a very, very secluded corner under the tree, there was a small stone table and a long stone bench.On this stone bench, the little guy never expected that there was a young man sitting motionless with his elbows on the table.The apple touched his feet, and he jumped up; gathering himself together, he tiptoed out of the bushes and up the path.Looking up, he found a fruit-laden branch trembling slightly in the moonlight, and then it shook, and the shaking became stronger and stronger, and then he saw a hand reaching into the moonlight, picking it off An apple then retreats into the dark foliage.

The young man standing below slipped quietly to the bottom of the tree, and finally saw clearly the thief clinging to the tree trunk like a big black silkworm.Although the young man had a double moustache and a safari coat trimmed with wavy fringes, he was hardly a hunter; only, at this moment, he must have had a sudden impulse to hunt.He held his breath, stretched his hand into the branch, gently but firmly, pinched the defenseless ankle hanging by the tree trunk, as if he had been waiting in the garden in the middle of the night, just As if to catch the thief in the apple tree.There was a tremor in the ankles, and the work of picking apples stopped, but no one said a word.The little guy's feet were desperately pulled up, but the young hunter held on tightly; after a long stalemate like this, the little boy finally begged for mercy.

"Good sir!" "Little devil!" "But why do they keep looking over the fence all summer!" "Wait, wait for me to punish you!" The young man reached up and grabbed the little guy's trousers. "Why are you so thick!" he said. "Still Manchester, my good sir!" The hunter drew a pocket knife from his pocket and managed to open it with his free hand.When the little boy heard the knife snap, he made a posture to climb down.But the young man Yin stopped him. "Don't move!" he sternly said, "You're just right for me!"

The little guy seemed completely blind. "My God!" he said. "The trousers belong to my master! Don't you have a stick or something, dear sir: you can settle accounts with me alone! It's more interesting, it's almost a sport; my master often Say, it's as good for your health as riding a horse for a walk!" However, the hunter still made a cut.When the little boy felt the cold knife slide past his flesh, the bulging pocket fell from his hand to the ground; the young man put the cut piece of cloth into his vest pocket. "Hey, now you're down!" he said.

Unexpectedly, there was no reply.Second after second he passed, and the little guy still didn't get down the tree.It turned out that when the bottom was cutting his trousers, he suddenly found that a small window in the opposite house opened slowly, and a small foot protruded from the window—the little guy clearly saw that The white socks on her feet shone in the moonlight——, and then a young girl appeared in the yard.She stood holding the open window sash with her hand for a while, then walked to the low fence gate and leaned half her body into the dark garden. In order to see all this clearly, the little guy stretched his neck.Looking at it, he seemed to have an idea in his head; he grinned his mouth all the way to the ears, stood firmly on the branches of two trees with his legs apart, and squeezed his hand together and cut it. pants.

"Hey, hurry up!" the young man urged him. "Soon," replied the little one. "But," the little guy replied, taking a bite of an apple, and even the hunter under the tree heard the sound of his gums grinding. "But, I happen to be a shoemaker!" "So what if you weren't a shoemaker?" "If only I were a tailor, I could mend the holes in my trousers," he said, and began munching his apple again. The young man fumbled in his pocket for the penny, but all he found was a large two-thaler silver dollar.He was about to withdraw his hand, but at this moment he clearly heard the creaking of the gate in the garden below.The church clock in the distance struck twelve.The young man was startled. "Fool!" he murmured, slapped himself on the forehead, put his hand in his pocket again, and said kindly:

"It seems that you are a child of a poor family?" "You know that," replied the little one, "it's nothing that's not hard earned." "Catch it, ask someone to mend your trousers!" The young man said and threw the silver dollar up.The little guy reached out to catch it, checked it over and over against the moonlight, and then put it into his pocket with a sly smile. Beside the earthen altar with the apple trees was a long path, on which there was the sound of small footsteps and the rustling of dresses on the sand.The hunter bit his lip, determined to use violence to pull the little devil's head off; but the other one cautiously drew his feet back up, one after another; the young man wasted his brains in vain.

"Did you hear that?" he said angrily. "You can go!" "Of course," replied the little one, "as long as you get the pocket!" "pocket?" "It just slipped out of my hand." "What does this have to do with me?" "Here, good sir, you happen to be standing below!" The young man bent down to pick up the bag, lifted it and put it back on the ground. "Just throw it up hard," said the little one, "I'll catch it!" The hunter glanced at the tree in despair, only to see the short black body standing on the branch with legs apart, motionless.The small footsteps in front were getting closer and more urgent, so he hurried to the path.

Before he could see clearly, the girl had already thrown herself on his neck. "Henrich!" "God bless, don't make it!" He covered her mouth and pointed to the tree with his finger.She stared at him blankly, but he didn't care about it at all, he just pushed her into the grove with both hands. "Little devil, damn it! Be careful not to touch it in my hands next time!" As he said, he picked up the heavy bag on the ground and raised it above his head with a snort. "Yes, yes!" said the little guy, taking the bag from the young man at the same time, "No wonder it's so heavy, it's so red!" Then he pulled a short strap out of his pocket and bit it between his teeth. Free up your hand to tie the belt into a loose buckle, tie it tightly on the pocket, and then put the pocket on your shoulders, and then carefully adjust it to distribute the burden on the chest and back equally. No more, no less, just right.When this was done to his satisfaction, he grabbed a branch that was hanging over his head, held it with both hands, and shook it vigorously. "There's a thief! A thief is stealing an apple!" The little guy shouted loudly, and the overripe apples fell to the ground in a snap. There was a buzzing sound in the woods below him, a girl screamed, and the garden gate slammed; and when the little fellow stretched his neck out again, he saw only the small window. Just as it was closed, the white trousers disappeared through the window again. In an instant, the little fellow was riding with his legs apart on the fence at the end of the garden. His eyes were scanning the road, and he saw his new acquaintance spread his legs and fled into the moon field outside the garden.Meanwhile, he thrust his hands into his pockets, twiddled his silver coin, and chuckled to himself until the apples on his back danced.At last, when the master's family was running around in the garden with sticks and lamps, he quietly slipped down the gate, swaggered across the road, and walked into a nearby garden, which was his home.