"We're going to see Mr. Brown catch the apple boy," Russ answered back over his shoulder.
"Is that pesky apple boy here again?" asked the farmer's wife.
"What's a pesky apple boy?" asked Laddie, as he ran along beside Russ. "Is it a riddle? If it is I wish she or Mr. Brown would tell me the answer."
"No, 'pesky' is sort of mean, I think," explained Russ.
"Hi there! Don't you run off with my apples!" shouted the farmer again, and by this time the boy had reached the fence. He started to climb over it, but it was too high, or else he was too small, and as he wiggled and struggled many more apples kept dropping from his pockets. He seemed to have filled his coat and trousers pockets pretty full with Mr. Brown's apples.
"Now I have you!" cried Mr. Brown, as he rushed up to the boy and pulled him back just as the little fellow might have gotten over the fence if he had had a moment more. "Now I have you! I'll teach you to take my apples! I warned you if I caught you in my orchard again I'd have you arrested, and now I'm going to! I told you to keep out of my orchard!"
"No, you didn't," answered the boy in a sullen voice, as the farmer took hold of his collar and began to drag him toward the house.
"What makes you say I didn't?" demanded Mr. Brown, while Russ, Rose, and the others looked on wonderingly. "Didn't I tell you not to take any more of my apples?"
"No, you didn't!" exclaimed the boy. "And I wish you'd let me go! I never was in your orchard before, and I never took any of your apples before, and I wouldn't have taken any now only I was so hungry I was almost starved!"
His chin began to tremble, and so did his lips, and it was easy to see he was almost ready to cry.