In the fall, New Moon’s crop of apples delights Emily. She eats several apples a day from their own orchards but also loves to eat apples from Lofty John’s orchard. He often sets out a row of apples in his workshop for Emily and Ilse.

One day, Emily goes into John’s workshop, and while there is a row of apples set out for her, there is not one of the sweet variety that she is craving. She sees one of those apples sitting on one of the stairs to John’s house and decides it is probably alright if she eats it.

She is nearly done eating the apple when John enters the workshop and begins working. By the time he realizes she ate the apple on the stairs, she has finished it. He cries out that he had set that apple out to kill the rats in the workshop; it was laced with poison.

Emily is sure she is going to die and runs home to New Moon. Aunt Laura and Elizabeth have gone out and she hopes that someone comes back before she dies. She writes a letter to Ilse that says she forgives her for calling her terrible names in their last fight.