The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-01-25
HOW GEORGE
STOPPED" HIS PA


George said his father with
couuteuanCo more iu sorrow than u
anger George. someone has cut down
my favorite cherry tree. DO you know
anything about it2'
Young Washington did not quail be-
fore his fathers accusing glance. lie
looked him straight i'm his eye. and m
expression of honest resolution gloam-
ed iu his clear couutcnauoe.
My father he said. 81 win not de-
ceive you. do know something about
it, but that is not the issue at all You
have. bon effect. charged me with be-
ing pryy To- the destruction OF your
favorite tree. Now, the question is.
since you have filed information and
laid this charge against me. what do
you know about it?"
81 know that you have % hatchct."
replied his father. stcruly. [ know
what "a boy with a Ratchet is liable TO
do. ! know that someone has cut
down my favorte cherry tree"
stop right there Interrupted the
future father of his coupntry You
say this was your tree2"
q do"
'How came it to be yours?"
81 planted it,"
"Now, sir, are you certain it was not
on this farm before you came here"
"No, sir, it was not"
"Then why did you say so?"
'Why did l say what?
That's right; evade, bubble, crawl
out of it somehow. All right. If you
don't want to answer fair, plain,
simple question, you don't haev to-"
But l didn't say it was on the farm
when l came here"
"Oh, very well, deny it. Is there
any other retraction you would like to
make?"
81 don't retract anything. ! merely
declare that | never said the tree was
on the farm when l came here"
ooh, well, father, don't get excited
and talk loud. You may go back on
your own entire statement, if you wish
Perhaps you will next try to make us
believe that this farm wasn't here eth
err when you came"
"Why, of course it was here.
don't"
Didn't you say moment ago that
it wasn't?"
"That was the tree"
"Ah, yes; you turn it off on the tree
now. You've been talking about that
tree all this time, them"
why, certainly l have
Then you just admitted that it was
here when you came here?"
NO, my son; that was the farm?'
But not half-a-dozen questions ago
you admitted that You said, i'm these
very words why of course il was
here did you not?"
| Il said those words, but l was speak
| ing of the farm
And yet you said but this very
moment that all this time you had
! been talking about the tree Il is USE
! less to continue this examination. My
| father, of all human vices lying is
| the commonest and / doubt not it is
! the worst. 1t blunts our moral sem
sibilities; it leads us to distort and eX-
! aggerate simple statements of facts;
! it burs our power of intelligent OBJ
servation until even man of ordinary
scholarship and intellectual develop
ment is unable to tell whether he is
talking about a farm or cherry tree
! The complaint is dismissed. l doubt
very much if you can even establish
the fact that you ever owned a tree
Go to the nursery, and if you intend
planting a tree in the place OF the one
you imagine you have lost, you had
better take a man with you to show
you the ground, lest you might plant
the tree in your hat. You may go"
Sadly the old man turned away; but
he told the man who helped him to
plant the new tree that if he had
hundred boys he wouldn't let another
one of them study law.-Pearson's.