The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-08-12
THE LOAD OF WOOD.

-Au the Fedr Round.
THE LOAD OF WOOD.
The boys were talking about the kind
of business they would choose, when
Uncle Asa came into the room. As Uncle
Asa had tried several kinds, and been
prosperous in all, they appealed to him
for advice. -
s.What want to know is this" said
Charley, in the course of the discus
sion which followed; '.you have bought
and sold-sn good many things. but
what has turned out to be the most prof
Uncle Aa Eoonsidered a moment,
while a curious smile passed over his
pleasant rosy face. agt9f ssr-.
well, if 1 were to name any one
thing which, have handled, and which
has in the long run proved most to my
advantage-well," said the old gentle
man. nodding decidedly, 81 think 1 must
say, load or wood" --ta's'
"a load of wood ?'' chorused the boys.
They had expected he would say wool,
or wheat, or hardware, or indigo; and
they couldn believe his reply was quite
..But it isr' said Uncle Asa. ga load
of wood. and not large load. either;
not nearly SO large as it looked. Itwas
really the beginning ofmy fortunes, and
l am sdre owe more to it than any
thing else 1 ever dealt in.
Tell you about it? Of course I will,
if you wish it, and perhaps it will help
to start you in the right direction.
your age, Charley: / think 1 was six
foo, kof The Srru,roar unrk
well overs tba winter school had not
yet begun; and my Cousin Medad and
/ were considering how we should earn
a little pocket-money.' My father heard
us talking over some boyish schemes,
and said to US:
s.I can give, you an idea better than
that. There the oak that. blew over
last spring, in the mill-pasture. You
NAV cut It up, and have all you can
make out of it,
".But there' work in that said.
"'Yes; so there is in almost any honest
job pc iple are willing to pay money for.
But it isn't so hard as you think, said
my father. One stroke at q time: SO
many strokes an hour; SO many hours
day: That's the way great things are
accomplished. 1t isn't much of tree;
you II wish there was more of it before
you get through
..Well." Uncle Asa continued. ''we
undertook the job, and we did wish
there was more of it. With q cross cut
saw and beetle and wedges, then with
a hand-saw and an axe. we reduced that
tree to stove wood in a very short time;
and had fun out of it, too Boys have.
only to be interested in their work, you
know. to find it pleasant
''We saw profit in every stick, and
had as much talk about the way we
would dispose of the wood, and what
we would do with The money, as if we
had been young Iiailionaires discussing
some great project. p ~
"sThere great deal in the way you
pile wood. to sell it, Medad said.
There's Jake Meeker-he says he can
take nine cords of wood and pile it over
and make ten out of it, easy as moth
ing 6,
he can throw his hat through some of
Jake's wood piles such great holes!
He don't really make ton cords Of it that
s..Yes he does,' Medad insisted.
There's holes through every wood pile;
and you measure SO much for q cord,
whether they re big or little:' - - - &
"sBut that's cord-wood,' 1 said. You
can't pile .stoye-wood up so as to make
SO much more of it,
"'Weli see about that, Medad re-
piled, with q slasfgh.I We're going to
"sOf course, I said; and waited with
q good deal of curiosity to see how he
would manage - .
ssHe showed me in q day or two. We
had an old one-horse wagon; we har-
messed Dolly 70 It, and backed it up to
our wodHple! Then we began to lay
the sticks loosely in the box, so as to
make them take up as. much room as
possible. ~ ..-...r-t.,.
s.But they did not fill up SO fast as we
had expected; for we knew that if we
piled them too loosely they would be
apt to shake down together on the way
to the village. and so cause our load to
shrink before we sold 1t.
"Medad looked at the wood id the
box when it Was half-6lled, and then at
that which remained on the ground,
and shook his head obviously. ''Twon't
dor he said. We ought to make three
loads of it; but at this rate we sha'n't
make two. I've an idear
"sWhatp said, wondering how he
would get out of the difficulty.
".Throw it all out again; I'll show
II didn't like that notion; but he in
sisted, and the wood was all unloaded
but few sticks in the bottom of the
wagon-box. With these he began to
build the load. as lac aptly termed it
Instead Of laying the sticks together all
one way, he placed . few on the bottom
far apart, and others crosswise on those,
also very far apart, dollhouse fashion.
Then he called upon me for more wood.
".But. Mede. 1 objected, g this will
never do
".Why won't it dol? he demanded.
"'It's cheating. ism titr
".It's no more cheating than the
way Jake Meeker piles his wood 10
cheatingI Other folks do 50. Only we
make our pile little more hollow than
common
81 couldn's deny the truth of this ar
pument.,e And If others made the most
Of their wood by their skill in piling it,
why shouldn't we do the same?
ssStill hesitated. A man might,
perhaps, be excused for cheating o lit
tie; but we were preparing to cheat q
good deal. - ''-le
"'The principle is the same Medad
said, when l mentioned my scruples
(pretty fellows we were to talk Of prin-
ciples)i 1T amt cheating exactly; but
even il it is, it's what everybody doe 8
in the way of business. Ye can't get
along without it; maybe We can in the
next world, but ye can't in this. Who
tells the bad points in anything he wants
to sellP Don't everybody cover them
up. and show the good points. and make
the most Of 'smf OF course they do.
Hand me more stieksP