The Quality of Mercy

A siren wails down the country road to Tom Riley's farm, and Tom comes running out to see what all the ruckus is about. It turns out to be Officer David Harley, who has caught Scott Williams climbing Tom's apple tree, helping himself to the fruit, and breaking a section of fence on the way over. Scott insists the whole thing was an accident, both the apples and the fence, and begs Mr. Riley not to have him arrested, because his parents would put him on restriction for the rest of his life.

Tom is more interested in explaining than in punishing. The apples are still too green to eat, he says, and that is one reason for the no trespassing sign, but the bigger reason is simpler than that: a person cannot just take what does not belong to him. Officer Harley, cheerfully official, offers to book Scott or to make him pay restitution, a word Scott finds terrifying until Tom explains it only means paying someone back. The damage adds up to about thirty dollars, money Scott does not have, so Tom waves it away. They will let it go this time. Scott promises he will never do it again, thanks everyone in sight, and heads off to find his bike.

Over at Whit's End, Whit and Connie are locked in a checkers battle that Connie only agreed to because Whit hinted she was a snob for calling the game hick. Tom stops in and Connie greets him with the rumor going around town - seven police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance out at the Riley place - which Tom trims back down to one squad car that merely sounded like seven. While they talk, Scott corners Robbie Holt, who is quietly reading in the corner, and demands the two dollars Rob owes him. Rob explains that his allowance has not come yet. Scott gives him until that afternoon.

Rob does not have it. His father is away for the weekend, and the half of his allowance he does get leaves him a dollar short. When he meets Scott in the alley to hand over what he has, Scott shoves him into a row of garbage cans and warns him that next time it will be worse. Tom and Officer Harley hear the crash, find Rob and his friend Ben climbing out of the trash, and get the truth out of them. Tom tells the boys not to worry about Scott anymore, and then makes a phone call to Scott's father.

The next thing Scott knows, Officer Harley is at his door telling him to get in the car, and the car is driving him straight back to the orchard. There Tom presents a careful bill of twenty seven dollars and forty two cents for labor, materials, and a mended fence. Scott protests that he was let off the hook, and Tom agrees that he was. He had hoped mercy would teach the lesson by itself; since it did not, Scott can work the debt off instead, picking up apples and repairing the fence, quite possibly until sundown.

Later that evening, with the floor freshly mopped and the checkers game still going, Whit asks Tom whether he happened to have Matthew chapter 18 in mind. Tom admits it. He forgave a boy a real debt, and that boy turned around and refused to be patient with someone who owed him a single dollar. Mercy received, Tom says, was meant to be mercy passed along. Any resemblance to the parable, he adds, is purely intentional.