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!