A boy was tempted by some of his companions to pick some ripe cherries from a tree which his father had forbidden him to touch.
“You need not be afraid,” said they “for if your father should find out that you had taken them, he is so kind that he will not hurt you.”
“That is the very reason,” replied the boy, “why I should not touch them. It is true my father may not hurt me; yet my disobedience, I know, would hurt my father; and that would be worse to me than anything else.”
Was not that an excellent reason?
ML 05/19/1940