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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10976 ***
+
+THE
+
+APRICOT TREE.
+
+
+
+PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
+
+THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION,
+
+APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
+
+CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED FOR THE
+
+SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
+
+SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
+
+GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS;
+
+AND 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE.
+
+1851.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Price TWOPENCE.
+
+_R. Clay, Printer_,
+
+_Bread Street Hill_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+THE APRICOT-TREE.
+
+
+It was a fine evening in the beginning of autumn. The last rays of the
+sun, as it sunk behind the golden clouds, gleamed in at the window of a
+cottage, which stood in a pleasant lane, about a quarter of a mile from
+the village of Ryefield. On each side of the narrow gravel walk that led
+from the lane to the cottage-door, was a little plot of cultivated
+ground. That on the right hand was planted with cabbages, onions, and
+other useful vegetables; that on the left, with gooseberry and
+currant-bushes, excepting one small strip, where stocks, sweet-peas, and
+rose-trees were growing; whose flowers, for they were now in full bloom,
+peeping over the neatly trimmed quick-hedge that fenced the garden from
+the road, had a gay and pretty appearance. Not a weed was to be found in
+any of the beds; the gooseberry and currant-bushes had evidently been
+pruned with much care and attention, and were loaded with fine ripe
+fruit. But the most remarkable thing in the garden was an apricot-tree,
+which grew against the wall of the cottage, and which was covered with
+apricots of a large size and beautiful colour.
+
+The cottage itself, though small and thatched with straw, was clean and
+cheerful, the brick floor was strewed with sand, and a white though
+coarse cloth was spread on the little deal table. On this table were
+placed tea-things, a loaf of bread, and some watercresses. A cat was
+purring on the hearth, and a kettle was boiling on the fire.
+
+Near the window, in a large arm-chair, sat an old woman, with a Bible on
+her knees. She appeared happy and contented, and her countenance
+expressed cheerfulness and good temper. After reading for some time with
+great attention, she paused to look from the window into the lane, as if
+expecting to see some one. She listened as if for a footstep; but all
+was silent. She read again for about ten minutes longer, and then
+closing the Sacred Volume, rose, and, having laid the Book carefully on
+a shelf, opened the door, and went out into the garden, whence she could
+see farther into the lane, and remained for a considerable time leaning
+over the little wicket gate, in anxious expectation.
+
+"What can be the reason that Ned is so late?" she said, half aloud, to
+herself. "He always hastens home to his poor old grandmother as soon as
+he has done work. What can make him an hour later than usual? I hope
+nothing has happened to him. But, hush!" she continued, after a few
+minutes' pause, "surely I hear him coming now."
+
+She was not mistaken, for in a minute or two Ned appeared, running quite
+fast up the lane, and in a few moments more he was standing by her side,
+panting and breathless.
+
+"Dear grandmother," he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered breath
+enough to speak, "I have a great deal of good news to tell you. Farmer
+Tomkyns says he will employ me all through the winter, and pay me the
+same wages that he does now. This is one piece of good news. And the
+other is, that Mr. Stockwell, the greengrocer, will buy all my apricots,
+and give me a good price for them. I am to take them to him next
+market-day. I had to wait more than half-an-hour before I could speak to
+him, and that made me so late. O how beautiful they are!" continued he,
+gazing with admiration at the tree. "O grandmother, how happy I am!"
+
+His grandmother smiled, and said she was glad to hear this good news.
+"And now come in and have your tea, child," she 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 wish you to get by heart these three texts, and repeat them
+to me."
+
+Ned did as he was desired, and then his grandmother kissed him, and bid
+him good-night.
+
+Ned loved his grandmother very much, for she had always been kind to
+him. His parents had both died when he was very young; and she then
+brought him home to live with her, and had taken care of him ever since.
+She taught him to read and write, and cast up sums; to be steady and
+industrious; and, above all, it was her great care to instil into his
+mind religious principles. She had often told him that the way to profit
+by what we read, as well as by the good advice that may be given us, is
+to think upon it afterwards; and she frequently desired him to make a
+practice of saying over to himself every night whatever verses from the
+Bible he had learnt by heart during the day.
+
+This evening, when Ned repeated his texts, he felt that he had been
+wrong to rejoice at Tom Andrews's disgrace, because he had behaved ill
+to himself; and he prayed God to make Tom see his faults, and leave off
+his bad ways.
+
+The next day Ned, as usual, went early to his work. Tom Andrews was
+very teasing, but Ned tried not to be provoked; and when Tom said
+ill-natured things to him, he checked the angry replies he was tempted
+to make. Two days afterwards, when Ned came home to tea, he thought with
+pleasure that to-morrow was market-day at the town where Mr. Stockwell
+lived; and he ran in and out twenty times, to look at, and admire, his
+beautiful apricot-tree. "I must get up very early indeed to-morrow
+morning," he said to his grandmother, "that I may gather the apricots,
+and take them to Mr. Stockwell before I go to my work." Accordingly the
+next morning he rose as soon as it was light, and, taking a basket the
+greengrocer had lent him in his hand, went into the little garden to
+line it with fresh green leaves, before putting the fruit into it.
+
+What was his surprise and sorrow when he saw that every one of his
+apricots was gone, and the tree itself sawn nearly in two, close to the
+root!
+
+Throwing down his basket, Ned ran to his grandmother, who was just come
+down stairs, and had begun to light the fire.
+
+He could only exclaim, "O my apricots, my apricots, they are all gone!
+And my beautiful tree--" then covering his face with his hands, he burst
+into tears.
+
+"What is the matter, my dear?" inquired his grandmother.
+
+Ned replied by taking her by the hand, and leading her into the garden.
+
+"Who can have done this?" he exclaimed, sobbing. "If they had only
+stolen the apricots, I could have borne it better! But to see my dear
+tree spoiled--It must die--it must be quite killed--only look how it is
+cut!"
+
+"I am very sorry for you, my poor boy," said his grandmother, kindly.
+"It is a most vexatious thing."
+
+"Oh!" cried Ned, "if I did but know who it was that had done it--"
+
+"I would be revenged on them, some how or other," he was going to have
+added; but the texts which he had learned a few days before concerning
+the forgiveness of injuries, and which he had frequently repeated to
+himself since, came into his mind, and he stopped short.
+
+On looking round the garden, to see if they could discover any traces of
+the thief, Ned and his grandmother saw the prints of a boy's shoe,
+rather bigger than Ned's, in several of the beds, and hanging on the
+quick-hedge were some tattered fragments of a red cotton handkerchief
+checked with white. "I know this handkerchief," said Ned; "it is Tom
+Andrews's; I have often seen him with it tied round his neck. It must be
+he who stole my apricots."
+
+"You cannot be sure that it is Tom who stole your apricots," rejoined
+his grandmother. "Many other people besides him have red handkerchiefs."
+
+"But I am sure it can be no one but Tom; for only yesterday, when I told
+him about my apricots, and the money I expected to get for them, he said
+he wished he knew how to get some, that he might have money too. Oh! if
+I could but get hold of him--"
+
+Again he stopped, and thought of our Saviour's words; then, turning to
+his grandmother, he said, "Whoever it is that has robbed us of the
+fruit, I forgive him, even if it is Tom Andrews."
+
+Ned went to work that day with a heavy heart. Tom Andrews was in high
+glee; for his master had said he would give him another week's trial.
+Ned told him of the misfortune that had happened to him, and thought
+that Tom looked rather confused. He also remarked that his companion had
+not got the red handkerchief on that he usually wore about his neck; and
+he asked him the reason.
+
+"I tore it last night, scrambling through a hedge," replied Tom
+carelessly.
+
+"How came you to be scrambling through a hedge last night?" inquired
+Ned.
+
+"What makes you ask me that question?" returned the other, sharply.
+
+"Because," answered Ned, fixing his eyes upon him, "because the person
+who stole my apricots left part of a red handkerchief hanging on our
+hedge."
+
+"Do you mean to say, then, that _I_ stole them?" exclaimed his
+companion, in an angry tone. "I'll teach you to tell this of me."
+
+So saying, he struck Ned a blow on the face with his fist, before Ned
+was aware what he was going to do.
+
+Ned was very much tempted to strike in return; but just as he raised his
+arm, something seemed to whisper that he ought not to do so; and,
+drawing back a few steps, he called after Tom, who was beginning to run
+away, saying,
+
+"You need not be afraid of me. I am not going to strike you, though you
+did strike me; because it is wrong to return evil for evil."
+
+"Fine talking, indeed!" rejoined Tom, tauntingly. "I know very well the
+reason why you will not strike me again. You dare not, because I am the
+biggest and strongest. You are afraid of me."
+
+Now Ned was no coward. He would have fought in a good cause with a boy
+twice his size; and he was very much provoked at the words and manner of
+his companion.
+
+He had a hard struggle with himself not to return the blow; but he kept
+firm to the good resolution he had made, and went away.
+
+As he was returning home very sorrowful, he could not help thinking how
+happy he had expected to be that evening; and he regretted extremely
+that his grandmother would have no cloak to keep her warm in the cold
+weather. Still, the recollection that he had patiently borne the blow
+and insulting speeches of Tom, and thus endeavoured to put in practice
+the good precepts he had been taught, consoled him, and made him feel
+less sad than he would otherwise have been.
+
+"How did you get that black eye, Ned?" asked his grandmother, as soon as
+she saw him. "I hope you have not been fighting."
+
+"No, grandmother, indeed I have not," replied Ned; and he told her how
+it had happened.
+
+His grandmother said that he was a good boy to have acted as he did, and
+added, "It makes me happier to find that you behave well, than twenty
+new cloaks would."
+
+The next day, at dinner time, when Ned went into the little outhouse
+where he and Tom usually ate this meal, he found Tom sitting there
+crying.
+
+"What makes you cry, Tom?" inquired Ned.
+
+"Because I have no dinner," was the reply.
+
+"How happens that?" asked Ned.
+
+"Because, now father's out of work, mother says she can only give us two
+meals a-day. I only had a little bit of bread this morning; and I shall
+have nothing else till I go home in the evening, and then she will give
+me a cold potato or two."
+
+Ned's grandmother had given him that day for his dinner a large slice of
+bread, and a piece of cold bacon. Ned had been working hard, and was
+very hungry. He could have eaten all the bread and bacon with pleasure,
+and felt certain that if he had got no dinner and Tom had, Tom would not
+have given him any of his. He recollected that Tom had never in his life
+shown him any kindness; that, a fortnight ago, when Tom had had four
+apples given him, he had eaten them all himself, without even offering
+him part of one; and, above all, he called to mind that Tom was in all
+probability the person who had robbed him of his apricots, and killed
+his favourite apricot-tree.
+
+But he remembered our Saviour's command, "Do good to them that hate
+you;" and though Tom was a bad boy, yet it grieved Ned to see him crying
+with hunger, whilst he himself had food to eat. So he divided both the
+bread and the bacon into two equal shares, with his knife, and then,
+going up to Tom, gave him one portion, and desired him to eat it. Tom
+looked at Ned in some surprise, and then, taking the food that was
+offered him, ate it in a ravenous manner, without saying a word.
+
+"He might just have thanked me," thought Ned to himself; but he forbore
+to tell Tom so.
+
+Ned always read a chapter in the Bible to his grandmother every night
+when he came home from work. It happened that this evening the chapter
+fixed on was the twelfth of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. He was
+much struck by one of the verses in it: "Therefore if thine enemy
+hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou
+shalt heap coals of fire upon his head."
+
+"Grandmother," said Ned, when he had concluded the chapter, "I
+understand the first part of this verse very well, it is plain enough;
+but what is meant by the words, 'for in so doing thou shalt heap coals
+of fire upon his head?'"
+
+His grandmother replied, that this passage had once puzzled her; but
+that an old lady with whom she had lived when she was a girl, and who
+kindly took great pains in explaining different parts of the Bible that
+were hard to be understood, had made this quite clear to her.
+
+"She told me," continued his grandmother, "that the Apostle alludes to
+the custom of melting gold and other metals by fire; and his meaning is,
+that as coals of fire melt and soften the metals on which they are
+heaped, so by kindness and gentleness we may melt and soften our enemy,
+and make him love, instead of hating us."
+
+Ned thanked his grandmother for this explanation, and then was silent
+for some little time.
+
+"Perhaps," he said to himself, "if I go on being kind to Tom Andrews, I
+shall at last make him love me, and leave off teasing me and saying
+ill-natured things."
+
+He would not tell his grandmother that he had given Tom part of his
+dinner, for fear she should another day give him more; and he knew she
+could not do this without robbing herself.
+
+Tom's father remained out of work for several weeks; and Tom would have
+been obliged to go without a dinner most days, if Ned had not regularly
+given him half his.
+
+For some time Tom received his companion's kindness sulkily, and without
+appearing at all grateful; but at last Ned's good-natured conduct
+appeared to touch him, and he said--
+
+"How kind you are to me, Ned! though I am sure I have done nothing to
+deserve kindness from you. Father often says he wishes I was more like
+you; and I do think I should be happier if I was, for you always seem
+cheerful and contented, though you work harder than I do."
+
+"I like working," answered Ned; "nothing makes me so dull as being idle.
+Besides, as grandmother says, people are far more likely to do wrong
+when they are not employed. You know the lines in the hymn,--
+
+
+  'For Satan finds some mischief still
+    For idle hands to do,'"
+
+
+Tom looked down and coloured.
+
+Ned, who had not meant to give him pain by what he said, added, on
+observing Tom's confusion--
+
+"I have so many things I like to do when I go home after work, that I
+don't deserve praise for not being idle."
+
+"I wish I had anything I liked to do when work is over," returned Tom;
+"but I have nothing to do but play, and I soon get tired of that."
+
+"So do I," rejoined Ned. "I like a game of ball or cricket every now and
+then as well as anybody; but it is a great waste of time, to say the
+least of it, to spend all one's spare hours in play; besides, as you
+say, we get tired, and do not enjoy play if we have too much of it."
+
+"What do you do of an evening, that is so pleasant?" inquired Tom.
+
+"Why I keep our little garden in order;--that takes up a good deal of
+time; and I write a copy, and do a sum or two, and read the Bible to
+grandmother."
+
+"I should like that very well," observed Tom, "all except reading the
+Bible."
+
+"Oh, do not say so!" exclaimed Ned; "surely you do not mean it."
+
+"I dare say," rejoined Tom, "that I should like the Bible well enough if
+I could understand it; but it's so hard! _You_ understand it all, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Oh, dear no! that I do not; but grandmother sometimes explains what is
+hard, and tells me a great many pleasing things about the manners of the
+country where our Saviour and his Apostles lived. I never am happier
+than when I read to her, and she talks to me about what I have read."
+
+"Well," said Tom, "mother hears me read a chapter now and then, but she
+always seems to think it a trouble; and so I read as fast as I can, to
+get it the sooner over. Father commonly says, he's too tired to listen."
+
+Ned said no more on the subject then; but when they had both done work,
+he asked Tom if he would like to walk home with him, and look at his
+garden.
+
+Tom hesitated at first; there seemed to be something in the idea that
+made him uncomfortable. But he had been gradually growing fond of Ned,
+and Ned's account of the pleasures and comfort of his home had made him
+wish to go there; so he told his companion that he would go with him.
+
+Ned's grandmother received the two boys very kindly, and gave them some
+tea and bread and butter. Having learned from Tom that his parents would
+not be uneasy at his absence, she asked him to stay with them all the
+evening.
+
+The next day Tom looked wistfully at Ned, as if he wished to go home
+with him, but did not like to say anything about it. Ned observed this,
+and told him that his grandmother had said he might come whenever he
+liked.
+
+"Then I'll go to-night," said Tom.
+
+And accordingly he went home with Ned that evening, and almost every
+evening afterwards for some time. He helped Ned to work in his garden,
+and took a part in all his other employments. Ned always read the Bible
+after tea, which Tom at first thought very tiresome; and he would not
+have stayed, had he not wished for Ned's company afterwards to walk part
+of the way back with him to the village; but soon he became so much
+interested in what he heard read, as well as by the improving and
+interesting conversation of Ned's grandmother, that he looked forward to
+the evening's reading as one of the pleasantest events of the day.
+
+One afternoon, as the two boys were digging a bed in the garden, Tom
+said to his companion--
+
+"I have long been going to tell you of something that makes me very
+uncomfortable; but I have never yet had courage to do it. I know you
+think that I stole your apricots, don't you?"
+
+Ned did not immediately reply. His good-nature made him unwilling to own
+that he _did_ suspect Tom; and he could not tell an untruth, by saying
+that he did not suspect him.
+
+"Well," continued Tom, "I am sure you must; and I do not wonder at it.
+Now the truth is, that when you told me about your apricots, I thought
+to myself that I would come when it was dusk, and take two or three of
+them just to eat, thinking that you would not miss such a small number.
+But I did not like to go by myself; so I asked Fred Morris if he would
+go with me. He said, 'O yes; he would go anywhere, or do anything, to
+get some apricots.' He did not know of your tree, he added; or he should
+have paid it a visit before. I began to be sorry I had told him, and
+made him promise that he would not take more than three. When it got
+dark, and we were set out, I felt that I was doing very wrong. I wished
+to turn back; but Fred would not let me. He said I need not take any
+fruit myself if I wanted to back out; but that if I did not go with him
+to show him the tree, he would beat me within an inch of my life. So we
+came to the wicket together; it was fastened, and we clambered over the
+hedge. Fred had a large basket with him, which I had several times asked
+him about, and tried to make him say what he brought it for. He told me
+that I should see when the time came. As soon as he got to the tree, he
+began gathering the apricots as fast as he could, and putting them into
+his basket. I tried to hinder him, and said I would shout and wake you;
+but he declared that, if I did, he would kill me; and you know, Ned, he
+is nearly twice as big as I am, and terribly violent; so all I could do
+was to hold my tongue, and let him alone. Just as we were going away, he
+caught up a saw that was lying in the garden, and spoiled the tree with
+it. I do believe he did this just for the love of mischief, or maybe
+partly to spite me, because I had told him not to steal all the
+apricots. He would not let me have one for my share; though I do not
+think I could have eaten it if he had, I was so much frightened, and so
+surprised at him for stealing all your fruit. He besides ordered me not
+to tell what he had done, and bullied me a great deal about it, till at
+last I got away from him. I was too much afraid to tell you for a good
+while, but I could not bear that you should think I had been so very
+wicked; and at last I made up my mind to tell you exactly how it was.
+
+"I know that I have been very wrong," continued Tom; "and that if it had
+not been for me the apricots would not have been stolen. I can't be more
+sorry than I am. And now that you have heard all, Ned, will you forgive
+me, and try not to think as badly of me as I deserve?"
+
+Ned said he was glad to hear Tom had had no more share in the affair;
+and then, holding out his hand to Tom, he assured him of his entire
+forgiveness.
+
+"Indeed, Tom," he added, "I forgave you in my heart long ago."
+
+"I am sure you did," rejoined Tom warmly, "or you would not have been so
+kind to me. O Ned, you cannot think how unhappy it makes me when I
+recollect how often I have been teasing and ill-natured to you,
+notwithstanding your good-nature to me!"
+
+"Say no more about that," replied Ned; "you have not been teasing or
+ill-natured lately. We shall, I hope, always be good friends for the
+future."
+
+When Tom was gone, Ned related this conversation to his grandmother.
+
+"I think," she observed, when he concluded, "that all Tom's sin in this
+matter came from breaking the tenth commandment. If he had not first
+coveted the apricots, he would not have been tempted to steal them.
+Through earnestly desiring what did not belong to him, he was led not
+only to commit a great sin himself, but to be the means of leading a
+fellow-creature into sin also. Fred Morris would not have thought of
+robbing the apricot-tree had not Tom put it into his head. In the Bible
+we are frequently charged not to lead our brother into sin; and heavy
+punishments are denounced against him who shall cause another to do
+evil."
+
+"I used to think, grandmother," observed Ned, "that the tenth
+commandment must be the least important of all; I did not suppose there
+could be any very great harm in merely wishing for what belongs to
+another person; but I shall never think so in future."
+
+Several weeks passed away, and the weather began to grow cold and
+winterly. Ned could not help sighing when he saw his grandmother
+suffering from the cold, and recollected that she had no cloak to keep
+her warm, and would have none all the winter.
+
+He sometimes sighed, too, as he looked at the apricot-tree, whose
+branches were now dead and withering; and so did Tom. Both the boys
+agreed that it had better be cut down, and taken away entirely.
+
+"How I wish," exclaimed Tom, "that we had another to put in its place!"
+
+"So do I," rejoined Ned; "but apricot-trees, I believe, are very dear to
+buy. A gardener my father used to work for, and who is now dead, gave me
+this. I fear there is no chance of our ever getting another."
+
+"How I do wish I was rich!" cried Tom; "I would give you an
+apricot-tree, and all manner of things besides. I should like to be as
+rich as our Squire best; but it would do to be as rich as Farmer
+Tomkyns. Oh, if I had only half as many sheep, and pigs, and cows, and
+haystacks, as he has, how happy I should be! Don't you wish you had some
+of the Squire's or Farmer Tomkyns's riches, Ned?"
+
+"No," replied Ned, "I don't; because we ought not to wish for other
+people's things."
+
+He then told Tom all that he could remember of what his grandmother had
+said to him about the sin of coveting what does not belong to us; and
+that doing so, besides breaking one commandment, is very likely to lead
+to the breaking of others also.
+
+"But," asked Tom, "how is it possible to help longing sometimes for
+things we have not got, and yet see other people have?" 
+
+"We may not," said Ned's grandmother, who had come out to call the boys
+in to tea, and had overheard the latter part of their conversation; "we
+may not, perhaps, be always able to prevent covetous or envious thoughts
+from entering our mind; but we should directly endeavour to drive them
+away, and pray to God to make us contented with 'that state of life in
+which it has pleased Him to place us.' 'Be content with such things as
+ye have,' says St. Paul. And again, speaking of himself, he tells us, 'I
+have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.' Besides,
+Tom, the rich are not always happy. They have a great many cares and
+anxieties that we know nothing of. You cannot have forgotten what
+trouble Farmer Tomkyns was in last spring when so many of his cattle
+died of the distemper, and he was afraid he should lose the rest. It is
+true the Squire can afford to have always a grand dinner to sit down to;
+but of what use is that when he is, and has been for years, in such a
+bad state of health that the choicest dainties afford him no pleasure!
+Do not you think, Tom, that if you were in his place, you would gladly
+give all the fine clothes, dainty food, and wealth that you possessed,
+to be strong and hearty again, even though you had only a poor cottage
+to live in, and a crust of bread to eat?"
+
+"Yes," replied Tom, "that I would, I am sure."
+
+"We are all," resumed the old woman, "too apt, I fear, to think more of
+the blessings and comforts we want, or fancy we want, than of those we
+already possess. We forget that c those among us who have least, have
+far more than they deserve.'"
+
+"What you say, grandmother," observed Ned, "puts me in mind of some
+verses in one of Watts's Hymns, that I learned by heart a little while
+ago. May I say them?"
+
+"Do so, my dear," replied his grandmother.  And Ned repeated the
+following verses:--
+
+  "Not more than others I deserve,
+    Yet God hath given me more;
+  For I have food while others starve,
+    Or beg from door to door.
+
+  "While some poor wretches scarce can tell
+    Where they may lay their head,
+  I have a home wherein to dwell,
+    And rest upon my bed.
+
+  "While others early learn to swear,
+    And curse, and lie, and steal;
+  Lord, I am taught Thy name to fear,
+    And do Thy holy will.
+
+  "Are these Thy favours, day by day,
+    To me above the rest;
+  Then let me love Thee more than they,
+    And try to serve Thee best."
+
+
+"They are very pretty verses indeed," said his grandmother, when Ned
+had finished; "and I am glad that you remember them at the right time."
+
+The day after this conversation, Tom told Ned that he should not be
+able to go home with him when work was over that evening, because his
+uncle was coming.
+
+It was frosty, and nothing could be done in the garden; so when Ned had
+mended a rail in the little wicket gate that was broken, and had had
+his tea, read the Bible, got by heart a column-of spelling, and said it
+to his grandmother, he sat down on a stool near the fire, and amused
+himself by going on with a stocking he had begun to knit.
+
+"How thankful I am to you for having taught me to knit," said he,
+"because it is something pleasant to do when I am in-doors of a
+winter's evening."
+
+Just as Ned left off speaking a knock was heard at the cottage door. He
+ran to open it, and was rather surprised to see Tom, and with him a
+well-dressed, pleasant-looking man, whom he did not remember to have
+seen before.
+
+"This is my uncle," said Tom.
+
+Ned bowed, and set a chair for their visitor.
+
+"I come," said Mr. Graham, for that was the name of Tom's uncle, "to
+thank you, my young friend, for your kindness to my nephew. I have long
+intended adopting Tom, and taking him to live with me when he was old
+enough to learn my trade, which is that of a carpenter, but when I came
+to Ryefield, a year ago, I found him so different in many respects from
+what I could have wished, that I gave up my intention, for I could not
+undertake to teacli a boy who was idle and unsteady. I now find him so
+much altered for the better, and Farmer Tomkyns gives me such a good
+account of his behaviour, that I am quite ready to give him a trial. He
+tells me that he has to thank you, Ned, for his improvement; that he
+has learned from your example to be steady and industrious, and to try
+to correct his faults; and that it is you and your good grandmother who
+have taught him to love his Bible, and take pleasure in going to
+church. Tom also tells me that it is his fault your nice apricot tree
+was spoiled.  Now there is a nurseryman, a friend of mine, whom I have
+several times had an opportunity of obliging, and I have no doubt that
+he will give me for you a strong young tree, at the proper time for
+planting fruit trees."
+
+Ned thanked Mr. Graham, who then added--
+
+"The town where I live is several miles off, so that you and Tom will
+not be able to see each other as often as you used, but Tom can walk
+over here on Sundays, and go with you to Ryefield Church sometimes, and
+I hope your grandmother will allow you now and then to come and see
+him."
+
+Ned's grandmother promised that she would; and then Tom told Ned that
+Farmer Tomkyns had very kindly said he would employ Robert, his younger
+brother, in place of himself.
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said Ned.
+
+"And so am I," said his grandmother. "It will be a great help to your
+father, Tom, to have you taken quite off his hands, and one of your
+brothers employed also."
+
+Tom then said he had heard that Fred Morris had been caught stealing
+some faggots, and taken before the magistrates, who had sent him to
+prison.
+
+The next day Farmer Tomkyns told Ned that in consequence of his good
+behaviour since he had been in his service, he was going to raise his
+wages.
+
+"Now," said he to himself, "I shall very soon, I trust, be able to get
+grandmother a cloak with my own earnings."
+
+This thought, and the prospect of having another apricot tree, made him
+feel happy; and so he told his grandmother.
+
+"But, granny," added he, "do you know there is something that makes me
+feel happier still than the thought of the cloak or the apricot tree
+either; and that is poor Tom's good fortune, and"----
+
+He stopped and hesitated.
+
+"What were you going to say, my dear?" inquired his grandmother.
+
+"And knowing that his good fortune is partly owing to me, I was going
+to have said, grandmother," answered Ned, blushing; "only it sounds
+like praising myself."
+
+"It is very natural that you should feel glad at this, my dear boy,"
+rejoined his grandmother, smiling kindly; "for there is no pleasure so
+great as that we feel when conscious of having contributed to the
+welfare and happiness of a fellow-creature."
+
+
+
+
+
+R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Apricot Tree, by Unknown
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10976 ***