In the crotch of and old apple tree

http://www.scholtz.org/bill/ira/remch2.htm

I quote from Life in Haverhill, byWilliam H. Scholtz.
please pay his verse a visit.

"I suppose we thought it a very strange way for Papa to come, so we asked him what he was coming for. He said "he would show us." Soon he had me by the shoulder with one hand, and was whipping me with the small stick in the other. Then he said "Go and drive the cows out of the corn." While the whipping proceeded Mary was crying to see how Papa was whipping Ira, not thinking that she herself might soon pass through the same experience. But no sooner had he finished whipping me, than he took her and did the same with her saying, "Now go to the house." Of course I ran as fast as I could and drove out the cows from the corn, then went and sat down in the crotch of and old apple tree as mad as I could be."