The writer, when a boy, was invited with all the other members
of his class to a picnic at the home of one of his companions,
who was very poor, and whose widowed mother supported herself
and her son from a small apple orchard. After spending the
afternoon in boyish sports, the class was invited into the
orchard to have some apples. With generous hospitality the host
invited the boys to help themselves; but to his amazement, the
boys, who were all from homes of refinement and supposed to be
well brought up, began an orgy of unrestrained apple-eating,
and after gorging themselves with all they could possibly eat,
stript the trees in wanton waste, just taking a bite here and
there and destroyed barrels of apples. The poor boy host could
not conceal that this waste was an unlooked-for financial loss.
It was an intemperate indulgence and abuse of hospitality that
was contemptible.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”
(1445)