Chapters 24 through 26 Summary

In "The Apricot Tree", one Saturday morning, "the school boys' happiest day", Ulysses wanders through the town and among other various visits, waves to Lionel, "the town half-wit". Soon afterwards, Ulysses watches as Auggie, the leader (only since Homer started working) of the neighborhood's gang of boys leads the gang on a raid of Mr. Henderson's town-famous apricot tree. In spite of Auggie's orders to stay behind, Ulysses tags along. Meanwhile, Mr. Henderson looks forward to the raids on his tree and to the pleasure it gives the boys when he scares them off. When the boys arrive at the tree, they discover that the apricots aren't quite ripe, but decide to steal at least one anyway. Ulysses watches as Auggie climbs the tree and grabs an apricot, only to be left stranded when Henderson comes out and scares the other...