“A little boy named Melville,” said daddy, “had heard that day that every one should make hay while the sun was shining.
“‘Make hay while the sun shines,’ was what Melville had been told. The one who had told him this was his teacher in school.
“How could any one make hay in the winter time and the sun shone in the winter time as well as in the summer time? he thought.
“He wondered about it more and more as he felt the warmth of Mr. Sun shining into his window. He was sitting curled up in a big arm chair.
“How he wished he could ask Mr. Sun what it meant. Of course he could ask his teacher to-morrow. There must be some meaning to it, or some catch to it which he didn’t understand.
“Mr. Sun looked very pleasant and as though he would be quite willing to tell Melville if only Melville knew how to ask him so he would hear.
“How nice and warm Mr. Sun was. More and more sleepy did Melville become, and after a few moments he was sound asleep. Then it seemed as though Mr. Sun came and sat on the window sill. ‘It is true,’ said Mr. Sun, ‘that one can only make hay when the season allows it, and the season doesn’t allow it when it is winter, most assuredly.
“‘But the expression, “Make hay while the sun shines,” has nothing to do with the seasons.
“‘It is simply an expression meaning to take advantage of the good weather or the good time or the good season and prepare for ones which aren’t so good.
“‘For example, when daddies and mothers are well and strong they try to save a little money for the days when illness may come. That is making hay while the sun shines, for they’re saving during the time when they get a chance to save.
“‘When children study when they’re young they’re making hay while the sun shines for they’re taking advantage of the opportunities they have which will make them wise when they’re men and women.
“‘When people are wise and take advantage of time it is making hay while the sun shines, for it is not losing time. The expression, as you see, means taking advantage of good times to prepare for bad times, and it started by some one telling some one else to see about the hay while the sun was shining, for the rain might come, and then it would be too late.
“‘And,’ continued the sun, ‘it is a wise saying, a very wise saying, indeed.’”