The Forbidden Fruit

The Forbidden Fruit

Father had bought and planted a number of dwarf pear trees in the yard around the house. He watched their growth and development with great interest for several years, and when at last one of the trees produced just one pear, all the children in the house were straitly and strictly forbidden to pull that pear off the tree. ‘Whoever pulls that pear off the tree will get a whipping, and a good one.’

The pear grew larger daily, and riper and more lusciously tempting. How the sight of it made our mouths water - especially as it was forbidden to pull it off! However, some one of the children, carefully reasoning that it was not forbidden to touch the pear, nor even to eat it, only that it must not be ‘pulled off’ - bent down the limb that bore it, ate the juicy fruit, and left the core hanging on the tree!