THE PEACHES

A FARMER brought with him from the city five peaches, the finest he could meet with. It was the first time that his children had ever seen this sort of fruit; and they admired greatly their red cheeks and soft down. The father gave one to each of his four boys, and the fifth to their mother.

At night, when the children were about to retire to their chamber, the father said, "Tell me: how did you like the pretty fruit?"

"Very much indeed, father," replied the eldest; "it was so juicy and of such a fine flavour. I have taken care of the stone, which I shall plant that I may raise a tree from it."

"Well done!" said the father, "thou hast shown forethought and prudence."

"I ate mine at once," cried the youngest, "and threw away the stone, and mother gave me half of hers. Oh, it tasted so sweet; it melted in my mouth!"

"Well," said the father; "thou has acted, if not

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very prudently, at least naturally, and as a child might be expected to do."

The second son then began: "I picked up the stone which Alfred threw away, and broke it. There was a kernel in it which tasted as sweet as a nut. But I sold my peach and got so much for it, that when I go to town, I can buy half a dozen with the money."

The father shook his head, and said, "This is prudent, indeed, but not childlike or natural. Heaven forbid that thou shouldst grow up a miser!"

"And thou, Edmund ?" asked the father. Edmund modestly replied, "I carried my peach to poor George, our neighbor's son who is ill of a fever. He would not take it, so I laid it on his bed and came away."

"Well," said the father, "which of you has made the best use of his peach ?"

"Brother Edmund!" cried the other three. Edmund was silent, and his mother tenderly kissed him with tears in her eyes.

-- Krummacher's Parables