One Sunday, as he wandered about the yard amusing himself, he found a beautiful, cherry tree, of which his oldest son was most proud off. He tried the edge of his bow saw on the trunk of the tree and the loppers on the limbs and cut the sucker down.
Some time after this, his son discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He came into the house in great anger and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut the tree down. Nobody could tell him anything about it.
Just then Charlie, with his bow saw, came into the room.
"Dad,'' said his son, "do you know who has killed my beautiful cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!''
This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment Charlie was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried:
"I cannot tell a lie, son, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my bow saw and loppers.''
The anger died out of his son's face, and taking the retiree tenderly in his arms, he said:
"Dear dad, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees! Yes - though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!''
The above story was written by M.L. Weems and modified slightly by me.
Actually, it didn't go down quite like that. However, Charlie (my dad) did cut down a cherry tree with a bow saw and loppers today; it was dead and needed to come down. Here is a picture of his handy work -
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