158 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



if I had got my hands on him, I should have 

 been still more embarrassed. If I had flogged 

 him, he would have got over it a good deal 

 sooner than I should. That sort of boy does 

 not mind castigation any more than he does 

 tearing his trousers in the briers. If I had 

 treated him with kindness, and conciliated him 

 with grapes, showing him the enormity of his 

 offence, I suppose he would have come the 

 next night, and taken the remainder of the 

 grapes. The truth is, that the public morality 

 is lax on the subject of fruit. If anybody puts 

 arsenic or gunpowder into his watermelons, he 

 is universally denounced as a stingy old mur- 

 derer by the community. A great many people 

 regard growing fruit as lawful prey, who would 

 not think of breaking into your cellar to take 

 it. I found a man once in my raspberry-bushes, 

 early in the season, when we were waiting for 

 a dishful to ripen. Upon inquiring what he 



