The Apricot Tree | Page 2

added; "for I am sure
you must be hungry."
"O grandmother," said Ned, as they sat at tea, "now that Mr. Stockwell
will buy the fruit, you will be able to have a cloak to keep you warm
this winter. It often used to grieve me, last year, to see you obliged to
go to church such bitter cold weather, with only that thin old shawl on.
I know you said you could not spare money to get a cloak for yourself,
because you had spent all you could save in buying me a jacket. My
tree has never borne fruit till this year; and you always said that when it
did, I should do what I pleased with the money its fruit would fetch.
Now, there is nothing I should like to spend it on better than in getting
a cloak for you."
"Thank you, Ned," replied his grandmother; "it would indeed be a very
great comfort. I do not think I should have suffered so much from
rheumatism last winter, if I had had warmer clothing. If it was not for
your apricot-tree, I must have gone without a cloak this winter also; for,
what with our pig dying, and your having no work to do in the spring,

this has been but a bad year for us."
"The money Mr. Stockwell is going to give me," resumed Ned, "will be
enough all but sixpence; and I have a new sixpence, you know, in a
little box upstairs, that my aunt gave me last June, when I went to
spend the day with her; so when I carry him the fruit, I shall take that in
my pocket, and then when I come home in the evening I can bring the
cloak with me. O that will be a happy day!" continued Ned, getting up
to jump and clap his hands for joy.
"There is another thing I am very glad of," said he, sitting down again.
"Master is going to turn Tom Andrews away next week."
"You ought not to be glad of that, Ned. Tom is one of a large family;
and his father being very poor, it must be a great help to have one of his
children earning something."
"But he is ill-natured to me, and often plagues me very much. It was
only yesterday he broke the best hoe, by knocking stones about with it,
and then told master it was my doing. Besides, he is idle, and does not
mind what is said to him, and often gets into mischief."
"And do you think being turned away from Farmer Tomkyns's will help
to cure these faults?"
"No," answered Ned; "I do not suppose it will."
"On the contrary, is it not likely that he will grow more idle, and get
oftener into mischief, when he has no master to look after him, and
nothing to do all day long but play about the streets?"
"Why, yes, that is true. Still, it will serve him right to be turned away. I
have heard Mr. Harris, our rector, say that those who do wrong ought to
be punished."
"Pray, Ned," asked his grandmother, "can you tell me what is the use of
punishment?"

"The use of punishment!--" repeated Ned, thoughtfully. "Let me think.
The use of punishment, I believe, is to make people better."
"Right. Now, Ned, you have allowed that Tom's being turned away is
not likely to make him better, but worse; so that I am afraid the true
reason why you rejoice at his disgrace is because you bear resentment
against him, for having been ill-natured to yourself. Think a minute,
and tell me if this is not the case."
Ned owned that his grandmother was right; and then observed, "It is
very difficult not to bear ill-will against any one who has done us
wrong."
"Yet," rejoined his grandmother, "it is our duty to pardon those who
have injured us. St. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 'Be ye
kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' And our blessed Saviour has
commanded us to 'love our enemies,' to 'do good to them that hate us,
and to pray for those that despitefully use us, and persecute us.' If you
will look at the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the sixth chapter of St.
Matthew, you will see what else our Lord says on the subject."
Ned took the Bible, and having found the place, read, "For if ye forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if
ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father
forgive your trespasses."
"Before you go to bed," said his grandmother, when he had finished
reading, "I