Wally was so fond of television that he had even given a TV to Homer to take to St. Cloud's. Of course the reception was very poor up there, which had perhaps improved the McCarthy hearings, which had been Wilbur Larch's first, sustained experience with television.

Thank God it didn't come in clearly,' he wrote to Homer.

Nurse Caroline had been in a bad mood all that year. If the U.S. Army really was 'coddling Communists,' as Senator McCarthy claimed, Nurse Caroline said that she'd consider joining up.

Wilbur Larch, straining to see Senator McCarthy through the television's snow and zigzagging lines, said,'He looks like a drunk to me. I'll bet he dies young.'

'Not young enough to suit me,' Nurse Caroline said.

Finally, they gave the television away. Nurse Edna and Mrs Grogan were becoming addicted to it, and Larch considered that it was worse for the orphans than organized religion. 'It's better for anyone than ether, Wilbur,' Nurse Edna complained, but Larch was firm. He gave the thing to the stationmaster, who (in Larch's opinion) was the perfect sort of moron for the invention; it was just the right thing to occupy the mind of someone who waited all day for trains. It was Wilbur Larch who {595} was the first man in Maine to call a television what it was: 'an idiot box.' Maine, of course-and St. Cloud's, especially-seemed to get everything more slowly than the rest of the country.

But Wally loved to watch it, and Angel watched it with him whenever Candy and Homer didn't object. Wally argued, for example, that such televised events as the McCarthy hearings were educational for Angel. 'He ought to know,' Wally said, 'that the country is always in danger from right-wing nut cases.'

Although Senator McCarthy lost the support of millions of people as a result of the hearings-and although the Senate condemned him for his 'contemptuous' conduct toward a subcommittee that had investigated his finances and for his abuse of a committee that recommended he be censured, the board of trustees of St. Cloud's had been favorably impressed by Senator McCarthy. Mrs. Goodhall and Dr. Gingrich, especially, were encouraged to complain about Nurse Caroline's socialist views and involvements, which they considered tinged the orphanage a shade of pink.

Nurse Caroline's arrival had stolen a bit of the board's fire. If Mrs. Goodhall was at first relieved to learn that someone 'new' had invaded St. Cloud's, she was later irritated to discover that Nurse Caroline approved of Dr. Larch. This led Mrs. Goodhall to investigate Nurse Caroline, whose nursing credentials were perfect but whose political activities gave Mrs. Goodhall a glow of hope. Many times had Mrs. Goodhall advanced her thesis to the board that Dr. Larch was not only ninety-something, he was also a nonpractising homosexual. Now she warned the board that Dr. Larch had hired a young Red.

'They're all so old, they'll be easily brainwashed,' Mrs. Goodhall said.

Dr. Gingrich, who was increasingly fascinated with the leaps of Mrs. Goodhall's mind, was still marveling over the confusing image of a nonpractising homosexual; it struck him as a brilliant accusation to make of anyone {596} who was slightly (or hugely) different. It was the best i rumor to start about anyone because it could never be proved or disproved. Dr. Gingrich wished he'd considered the accusation-just as a means of provocation-when he'd still been practising psychiatry.

And now, not only was Dr. Larch old and homosexual and nonpractising-he was also in danger of being brainwashed by a young Red.

Dr. Gingrich was dying to find out what Dr. Larch's responses might be to the accusation that he was a nonpractising homosexual, because Dr. Larch was so outspoken on the issue of Nurse Caroline's politics. '

'She's a socialist, not a Communist!' Dr. Larch protested to the board.

'Same difference,' as they say in Maine-about so many things.

'The next thing you know,' Larch complained to his nurses, 'they'll be asking us to denounce things.'

'What would we denounce?' Nurse Edna asked worriedly.

'Let's make a list,' Larch said.

'The abortion laws,' Nurse Angela said.

'At the top of the list!' Larch agreed.

'Oh my!' Nurse Edna said.

'Republicans,' said Wilbur Larch.' And the board of trustees,' he added.

'Oh dear,' Nurse Edna said.

'Capitalism,' Nurse Caroline said.

'There's never been any capital around here,' Dr. Larch said.

'Insects and scab!' Nurse Edna said. They all stared at her. 'And maggots,' Nurse Edna added. 'They're what I have to spray the apple trees for. Insects and scab and maggots.'

As a result, Wilbur Larch dug out of a closet the old black leather bag he'd had at the Boston Lying-in; he took the bag to a cobbler in Three Mile Falls who also repaired ladies' handbags and put gold initials on saddles, {597} and he had the cobbler engrave on his old black bag the gold initials F.S.-for Fuzzy Stone.

That August of 195-, just a few days before the picking crew was expected at Ocean View, Wilbur Larch sent the doctor's bag to Homer Wells. It was the time of year, every year, when Melony took her vacation.

Most of the shipyard workers, even the electricians, took a couple of weeks in the summer and a couple of weeks around Christmas, but Melony took a whole month during harvest time; it made her feel good-or, maybe, young again-to pick apples. This year, she had decided, she'd try working at Ocean View.

She still hitchhiked whenever and wherever she traveled, and because she wore only men's work clothes, she still looked like a tramp; no one would ever know that she was a shipyard's skilled electrician, with enough money in a savings account to buy a nice house and a couple of cars.

When Melony arrived at the apple mart, Big Dot Taft was the first to see her. Big Dot and Florence Hyde were arranging some of the display tables, although the only new apples they had available were the Gravensteins. They had mostly jellies and jams and honey. Irene Titcomb was working the pie ovens. Wally was in the office; he was on the telephone and didn't see Melony -and she didn't see him.

Candy was in the kitchen of the fancy house, talking real estate to Olive's vulgar brother, Bucky Bean. Bucky had bought what was left of the point of land Ray Kendall had owned on Heart's Haven Harbor. Bucky had put a very cheap and shabby seafood restaurant there-one of Maine's first carhop restaurants, one of those places where young girls dressed like cheerleaders bring you mostly fried and mostly tepid food, which you consume in your car. The food attaches itself to the cars by means of wobbly little trays that cling to the; doors of the cars when the windows are rolled down. Homer always wanted to take Wilbur Larch to such a place {598} -only to hear what the old man would say. Larch's response, Homer was sure, would be related to his response to television and to Senator Joe McCarthy.

Bucky Bean's new idea was to buy the part of the orchard called Cock Hill and sell it in one-acre lots as 'summer property' with a view of the ocean.

Candy was in the process of rejecting the offer when Melony arrived at the apple mart. Candy's opinion was that one-acre lots were too small and that the unsuspecting new owners would be unprepared for the chemical spray used on the apples that would regularly float over and descend upon their property every summer. Also, the families who bought property and built houses would doubtlessly believe it was their right to climb the fences and pick all the apples they wanted.

'You're just like Olive,' Bucky Bean complained. 'You've got no imagination concerning the future.'

That was when Melony approached Big Dot Taft, not only because Big Dot appeared to be in charge but also because Melony felt comfortable with big, fat women. Big Dot smiled to see how hefty Melony was; the two women appeared predisposed to like each other when Melony spoke-her voice reverberating through the near-empty stalls and surprising Meany Hyde and Vernon Lynch, who were putting water in the John Deere's radiator. When Melony tried to speak normally, her voice was peculiarly deep; when she tried to raise the pitch of her voice, most people thought she was shouting.