Martin began to plead with her.
“Let him go, Granny; he won’t do it again. Let him go for Christ’s sake!”
The old woman released the boy, who was about to run away when Martin stopped him.
“Ask Granny to forgive you and don’t do it again in future; I saw you take the apple.”
The boy burst into tears and begged the old woman to forgive him.
“There now, here’s an apple for you,” and Martin took an apple from the basket and gave it to the boy. “I’ll pay for it, Granny,” he said.
“You shouldn’t spoil the rascal,” the old woman said. “You ought to give him something he wouldn’t forget in a week.”
“Ah, Granny, Granny!” Martin said; “that is how we judge, but God does not judge like that. If the boy is to be whipped for an apple what do you suppose we deserve for our sins?”
And Martin told her the parable of the Lord who forgave his servant a large debt and how the servant then seized his own debtor by the throat. The old woman listened; the boy, too, stood and listened.