LESSON 4 THE STOLEN PEACHES

CHARLIE was the son of good and kind parents. It was his birthday and beautiful autumn weather. His parents loaded him with presents and permitted him to bring some of his school fellows to play with him.

They played about in the garden. There Charlie had a little plot of his own, rich with flowers and fruit. On the opposite wall there grew a peach-tree, which was not his but his father's, and this he had been told he must not touch.

The peaches were ripe, and a ruddy bloom blushed through their downy' skin. "What could be more delightful?" thought the boys.

"Why not just taste them?" said they to Charlie. "There's no harm in it. Besides, is this not your birthday? Surely you can do as you like once a year at least."

"No!" said Charlie; "I am forbidden to touch those peaches;that's enough for me; but take what you like from my own plot, and welcome."

Then said the eldest of the boys: "Very likely Charlie is quite right; but let us pluck the peaches, and perhaps he will help us to eat them."

So Charlie at last agreed to this, and he was by no means unwilling to share the feast.

When the peaches were all eaten, and the boys gone, Charlie began to feel he had done wrong; he stayed in the garden alone and wretched, and had never been so sad and miserable all his life long.

At last his father came into the garden, and called out, "Charlie!Charlie!"

Charlie stood at the end of the garden, a picture of misery. His father went to him, and in passing the peach-tree he saw what had been done. His face grew sad and angry.

Then said his father: "Is this your birthday, and is this the return you make us for all our care and kindness?"

Charlie was dumb.

"Henceforth the garden is locked to you," said his father. He then led Charlie into the house, and went away in displeasure.

Charlie went off to bed, but not to sleep. He turned and tossed this way and that, but the whole night long he could not sleep.

Next morning Charlie was so pale and sad that his mother had pity on him. So she said to her husband, "Charlie is sorry, but he thinks the 'locked garden' means that you have locked your heart against him."

"He is quite right," was the reply; "I have locked my heart against him."

"How sad, sighed the mother; "he has begun the new year of his life with sorrow."

"That it may be more full of joy, let us hope," said the father.

By-and-by the mother said: "I am afraid Charlie will doubt our love for him."

"I hope not," said her husband. "Although he feels he is guilty,I do not think he would wish to throw the blame on us. Till now he always had our love, and he will learn to prize it for the future by having to win it back again."

The following morning Charlie came down to breakfast calmly and cheerfully He carried a basket in his hand, full of all the toys and presents his parents had given him.

"What do you mean by this?" asked his father.

Charlie answered: "I give these back to you, for I do not deserve them." Then the father unlocked his heart, and happiness came back to them all again.

—KRUMMACHER