book2

THE THIMBLEBERKIES. 11
them as a present. You pick fruit for us a great
many times, — Sarah and the rest sometimes do
the same. Are all these things to be regarded
as so many gifts " ?
Henry blushed now; for, while he did not
make very large claims for benevolence on the
score of the thimbleberries, he was a little sur
prised that his mother should interrogate him,
and withal a little embarrassed. Summoning up
courage, however, he said, " You forget, mother,
that you and father gave me my time to-day, and
therefore would not naturally expect me to do for
you, unless as a mere gift, what on other days it
would be my duty to do."
His mother acknowledged the justness of his
remarks. She would not for the world, she said,
take away from the pleasure or blessedness