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Show THE BOY AND THE FRUIT TREE All moral authorities condemn tho smnll boy for stealing fruit. 'Yet wlion tho orator comes back to his native town for Old Homo Week, he seems to count his kid record ns a fruit stealer as ono of his assets. At least ho delights ln recounting thoso exploits. ex-ploits. Many peoplo entertain the subconscious feeling that tho hoy who doesn't rnld tho neighborhood Is lacking lu initiative, and not likely to succeed ln life. Let It bo admitted that tho scJnte and peaco loving citizen, standing bewildered be-wildered nmld tho shadows of n raided orchard, constitutes a picture hnvlng humorous aspects. Over tho fence ho hears tho sound of scrambling scram-bling nnd hcnmperlng logs, with an accompaniment of suppressed giggles. gig-gles. Ho Is helpless In tho darkness to pursue tho elusive youngsters. It Is tunny, but somehow ho falls to got tho point of tho Joko. Also thero Is tho viewpoint of thq gardener, liaising, frultsand vegetables veget-ables Is his sport, Just ns baseball Id the boy's If a gang of young toughs from tho next street, while tho boys hnvo left tho ball field to get a drink of water, slinks In and purloins tljo bnt, ball, mitts, and gloves', tho verdict ver-dict of boydouit 13 that tho ;ithlcvof arp wieaks, and,'deservo tf tbr3shlng, They usually gotx.v " ' Perhaps at that moment of. tlmo. ,tho kldlets can realize how thisBarU-cner thisBarU-cner feels at thD'lob3tf tho fruit of tho grupo vine or -melon patch ou which ho has spent many hours o labor. '" ' ' i In many localities people have given giv-en up tho homo, garden, ns they -can, not get tho fruit. Even vegetables aro dug up by organized gangs of i prowlers. They como armed with bags at night and stock up for th? winter. All which tends to mako tho domestic domes-tic and charming pursuit of gardening garden-ing unpopular. Yet It seems a laud-nblo laud-nblo aocatlon, and ono to bo encouraged. encour-aged. It helps a bit toward high cost of living, and promotes health and contentment. Hcnco thero nro still old fashioned people, who consider con-sider stealing fruit as very muchj llko stealing baseballs of money. |