"Walking the earth like Cain."

April is sort of like Friday.  It’s a fine month in its own right, but really, everybody is excited because the next month is May and it will be summer.  Not because they actually like the idea of getting up early and fighting traffic to the train station just like every other work day.  So which month is like a Wednesday?  That depends on the week.

My mother-in-law made me an apple pie and it was very, very good.  Got me thinking how lucky we are to have apple trees everywhere.  Reminded me of this entry from Washington Orville Hampton’s diary.

May 7, 1804 – Venango Couty, PA

I was fishing along French Creek this afternoon with Edmund Torrence and Archibald Montclaire when out of the scrub emerged a Bostoner dressed as an injun.  Edmund went for his musket but I stayed his hand.  The stranger noted our fresh catch and offered to trade a jug of his hard cider for some dinner.  We were agreeable, especially when our new companion began telling stories.

The afternoon passed quickly due to the quality of both the conversation and cider.  At one point Archie commented that it would be nice to get a jug of that cider in any town he traveled to.  One thing led to another, as it always does with Archie and by the time the sun had begun to set, Archie and Edmund had established and funded the “Appleseed Cooperative” with John Chapman as manager and employee specifically tasked with planting tart orchards everywhere that we were likely to travel during the next few years.

Naturally this was done for the purpose of a wager on the success of Chapman’s venture with Edmund convinced that he would succeed and Archibald thinking that the Mohicans would get him before we drank another gallon of his liquid ambrosia.  I don’t much care about the wager but I like Johnny and plan to travel with him for the summer.