Plains of Abraham

Historic plateau in Quebec City, site of the 1759 battle. In North Woods it is where Major Osgood’s wound sets off his passion for apples.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
North Woods	Daniel Mason	turning point	A French soldier slicing an apple bayonets Osgood, who wakes dreaming of a tree that feeds souls.

North Woods — Daniel Mason (2023)

Source: North Woods · Original · Readwise highlight

Or was it simply this: that the French soldier I surprised behind his bulwark on that fatal day upon the Plains of Abraham was slicing a sweet pippin with his bayonet when he rose and thrust it up into my chest?

• Role: turning point
• In the book: Major Osgood recalls surprising a French soldier on the Plains of Abraham who was slicing a sweet pippin and thrust his bayonet into Osgood’s chest. He wakes in a surgeon’s tent, dreams of a tree that feeds souls, learns of his wife’s death and convalesces at the Quebec garrison before returning to Albany.
• Why it matters: The wound and the dream are the origin of Osgood’s obsession with apples, and so of the orchard that shapes the house for generations.