The Apricot Tree | Page 3

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