SINGLE AND DOUBLE.
A FARMER who owned a lazy horse was riding him barebacked one day, when the beast began to complain of his load, saying:
“Such a heavy man as you ought to ride in a wagon and have a pair instead of one poor overworked horse to carry him.”
The farmer made no reply, but jogged on quietly. Presently he came up with one of his neighbors afoot. The farmer slackened his pace and the man walked beside him in the road, the two talking together about their corn, and oats, and clover. They had not gone far before the farmer noticed a limp in his neighbor’s gait.
“What is the matter?” said he.
“A sharp peg in my boot,” replied the other, “seems to object to my walking.”
“Then you’d better get up and ride behind me,” said the farmer.
“That I will,” said the man—“gladly; and thank you.”
As he clambered on to the horse from the top of a fence beside which his friend had stopped, the animal said to himself:
“Ah! I did not know when I was well off. Willingly now would I carry my master alone, but another behind him almost breaks my back. Never again will I complain of my load until I have asked myself how I should feel if it were suddenly made twice as heavy.”
When real discomforts come, we look back and wonder how we could have fretted under those which were only imaginary.