They were surprised, on approaching the tree, to find it loaded with cherries of so nice a quality. They were much larger than the common wild cherries, a sort of "mazards," similar to the kind that is cultivated in gardens.
"That is not a wild-cherry tree, I know," said Charlie. "It may have come up here, but the owner of this land would never fail to gather such cherries as these. They would sell for ninepence a quart in the village as quick as any cherries."
"I think so too," said Nat; "and if we strip the tree, the first thing we shall know, the constable will have us up for stealing."
"Pshaw!" exclaimed John. "You are more scared than hurt. I don"t mean that these cherries are not like some that grow in gardens; but the tree came up here of itself--n.o.body ever set it out--and so it is wild; and why are not the cherries common property as much as that smaller kind which people get over there by the river?"
This last argument of John was more convincing. All the boys knew that anybody gathered the common wild cherries from trees that grew much nearer dwelling-houses than this, so that there was some force in John"s last suggestion.
"If John _is_ right," added Nat, "it is best to be on the safe side, and ask leave of the owner. If he does not mean to pick the cherries, he will be willing that we should have them; and if he does want them, he will put us into the lock-up for stealing them."
"Who is going half a mile to find the owner?" said John, "and then perhaps he will be away from home. I shall not run my legs off upon any such Tom Fool"s errand. If you are a mind to do it, I have no objections, and I will pick the cherries while you are gone."
The matter was discussed a little longer, and finally all concluded to try the cherries. It required a pretty forcible argument to stand against the appeal of the luscious fruit to their eyes. Into the tree they went, and, in due time filled their caps with the tempting fruit.
Having loaded their caps, they descended and set them on the ground under the tree, and then returned to fill their stomachs.
"Hark!" said Frank hurriedly, "do I not hear some one calling?"
"Yes," answered John, from the top of the tree, where he was regaling himself with the dessert, "true as I am alive, there is the owner coming full speed, and yelling like a good one. Let us clear."
They all dropped upon the ground instantly, and bounded over the nearest wall like frightened sheep, and soon were seen scampering a hundred rods off.
"There, now, if that isn"t smart," exclaimed Nat; "we"ve left our caps under the tree, Frank."
John set to laughing to see the two capless boys; and he was more inclined to laugh because Charlie and himself had presence of mind enough to take theirs.
"If it was you, John, I shouldn"t care a snap," said Frank. "You led the way, and made us believe that they were wild cherries, and I wish your cap was there."
John could only laugh, in reply, at his bareheaded companions.
"I don"t see why we should run at all," said Nat, just apprehending the folly of their course. "We are not thieves,--we didn"t mean to steal. We shouldn"t have taken the cherries if we had known, the owner wanted them."
"What can we do without our hats?" asked Frank.
"I shall go and get mine," answered Nat, "and tell the man just as it was, and, if he is reasonable he will overlook it."
"I am beat now," exclaimed John; "the old fellow is certainly carrying off your caps."
The boys looked, and to their amazement, the man was returning to his house with the caps. Nat and Frank were more perplexed than ever.
"Never mind," said John; "you are both big enough to go bareheaded. What will you take for your caps?" and again he laughed at their predicament.
"What shall we do?" inquired Frank.
"Go to his house and get the caps, of course," said Nat. "The caps won"t come to us that is certain."
"What will you tell the man?"
"Tell him the truth," replied Nat, "and it ought to get our caps, and shield us from punishment."
"Perhaps he is a crabbed fellow who will show us no favors; and he will say that our running away is evidence of our guilt."
"We were fools to run," said Nat; "and if I had stopped to think one moment I should have stayed there, and explained it to him."
Finally, it was decided that Nat and Frank should go after their caps, on which errand they started at once, while John and Charlie proceeded homeward. In the mean time the owner of the tree had reached his house very much amused at the flight of the capless boys. He was somewhat angry when he first saw the boys in his tree, but the possession of the two caps well filled with cherries modified his wrath considerably. It would take him two hours to pick that quant.i.ty of fruit. "Surely," he thought, "the boys have beaten the bush and I have caught the birds."
"You must go to the door and explain it," said Frank to Nat.
"I am going to, and convince him that we did did not mean to steal."
Nat gave a gentle rap at the door, to which a lady at once responded.
"Can we see the man who has our caps?" inquired Nat.
"I will see," she replied very kindly, and stepped back into the house to call her husband. He made his appearance promptly; and looked so much more pleasant than Nat expected, that he was very much emboldened.
"What is wanted, boys?" he asked.
"We have come," replied Nat, "to tell how it happened that we got your cherries, and to get our caps."
"I suppose it happened very much as it does every year with those cherries," said the man,--"the boys steal them."
"No, sir; I think I can convince you that we did not mean to steal. We thought they were wild cherries. John came along and told us about them, and we did not believe they were wild. Finally we consented to go and see, and when we got to the tree, we told him that the owner of such nice cherries would want them, and I told him that the best way would be to come and ask you, for if you did not want them, you would certainly give us permission to pick them. But he laughed at us, and said the tree was much further from any house than the wild cherries that any person gets down by the river, and therefore the cherries must be common property. We thought he was right, when he told us this, and so we went up into the tree."
"But why did you run when you saw me coming, if you did not mean to steal them?" he asked.
"I run, sir, because I did not stop to think. I told Frank, as soon as we stopped running, that we were very foolish, because we did not mean to steal, and I was sorry that we did run. But we were so surprised when we saw you coming that we ran before we thought. I don"t think we did right, sir, though we did not mean to steal. It would have been better for us to have come and asked you for the cherries as I told John. Now we would like our caps, but we want you to be convinced first that we are not thieves."
"I _am_ convinced," replied the man. "I guess you mean to be honest boys, and you shall have your caps."
The fact was, the man was much impressed with the sincerity and honesty of Nat before he got half through his explanation. He admired his frankness, and his manly, straight-forward way of telling his story. He went into the house and brought out the caps, just as he took them from the ground, full of cherries, and gave them caps, cherries, and all.
"You don"t mean we shall have the cherries, do you?" inquired Nat.
"Certainly, you have worked hard enough for them," he replied. "And I like to see boys willing to own up when they do wrong. I don"t think _you_ meant to do wrong; but I am glad to see you make a clean breast of it, and not be so mean as to equivocate, and lie, to get out of a sc.r.a.pe. Boys always fare the best when they are truthful, and try to do right."
"We are much obliged to you," said Nat. "You will never catch us on your cherry-tree again without permission."
Having pocketed the cherries, they put on their caps, and hastened home, quite thoroughly convinced that all cherries which grow a half mile from any house are not wild.
CHAPTER V.
ATHLETIC SPORTS.
"A swim to-night," shouted John to Frank, on his way home from school.