Possible title The Middle Child? Shy young pioneer girl defends her lone apple tree from drought, locust and pigs, but Native Americans arrive and enjoy eating all but the last apples. She learns she is brave and generous.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
The Middle Sister. About Sarah Samantha, who has promised to make an apple dumpling for her uncle…if she can protect enough apples.
That sounds like it. When did it come out, do you know?
It also sounds like The Cabin Faced West, by Jean Fritz.
1947 in hardcover, then 1966 in Scholastic paperback.
By Miriam E. Mason, who wrote over 50 books, starting in 1931. The only other book of hers I remember was Caroline and Her Kettle Named Maud (1951). There was a sequel, Caroline and the Seven Little Words (1967), in which she wants to become a doctor (in pioneer-era Michigan). Mason died in 1973. She also wrote biographies, including ones of Mark Twain and suffragist Frances Willard!
Mason also wrote “Smiling Hill Farm,” which was my VERY FAVORITE book when I was about six.