He must have been desperate.

The cat did not even try to learn, and H.O.had the scars on his hands for weeks.
I do not wish to tell tales of H.O., for he is very young, and whatever he does he always catches it for; but I will just allude to our being told not to eat the greengages in the garden.

And we did not.

And whatever H.O.did was Noel's fault--for Noel told H.O.that greengages would grow again all right if you did not bite as far as the stone, just as wounds are not mortal except when you are pierced through the heart.
So the two of them bit bites out of every greengage they could reach.
And of course the pieces did not grow again.
Oswald did not do things like these, but then he is older than his brothers.

The only thing he did just about then was making a booby-trap for Mrs Pettigrew when she had locked H.O.up in the dairy, and unfortunately it was the day she was going out in her best things, and part of the trap was a can of water.