The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-08
The Stone in the Road.

A long time ago there lived a king
who took great delight in teaching his
people good habits. "Bad luck comes
only to the lazy and the careless
said he ''but to the busy workers
God gives the good things of this life
One night he put a large stone in
the middle of the road near his palace,
and then watched to see what the peo-
pie who passed that way would do.
Early in the morning a sturdy old
farmer, named Peter, came along with
his heavy ox-cart loaded with corn.
ooh these lazy people, he cried,
driving his oxen to one side Of the
road. "Here is this big stone right
in the middle of the road, and nobody
will take the trouble to move it,
And he went on his way, scolding
about the laziness of other people, but
never thinking of touching the stone
himself.
Then came a young soldier, singing
a merry song as he walked along. A
gay feather was stuck in his hat and q
big sword hung at his side; and he
was fond of telling great stories of
what he had done in the war. tie
held his head so high that he did not
see the stone, but stumbled over it
and fell fat into the dust.
This put an end to his merry song;
and. as he rose to his feet, he began
to storm at the country people.
"Silly drones - he said, ito have
no more sense than to leave a stone
like that in the middle of the road +
Then he passed on but he did not
sing any more.
An hour later there came down the
road six merchants with their goods
on pack horses, going to the fair that
was to be held near the village. When
| they reached the stone the road was so
narrow that they could hardly drive
their horses between it and the wall:
"Did any one ever see the like Z
they said. ''There is that big stone
in the road, and not a man in all the
country but that is too lazy to move
it y
Aud so the stone lay there for three
weeks it was in everybody way, and
yet everybody left it for somebody
else to move.
Then the king sent word to all his
people to meet together on a certain
day near his palace, as he had some
thing to tell them.
The day came and a great crowd of
men and women gathered in the road:
Old Peter, the farmer was there, and
so were the merchants and the young
soldier.
II hope that the king will not find
out what a lazy set Of people he has
around said Peter.
And then the sound Of a horn was
heard, and the king was seer coming
toward them. He rode up to the
stone, got down from his horse, and
said:
"My friends, it was I who put this
stone here, three weeks ago. 1t has
been seer by every one of you and
yet every one has left it just where it
was, duu SColueu LILO uCi6upoA NV
moving it out of the way
Then he stopped down and rolled
the stone over. Underneath the stone
was a round, hollow place, in which
was a small iron box. The king held
up the box so that all the people might
see what was written on a piece of
paper fastened to it.
These were the words:
"For him who lifts the stone.'
He opened the box, turned it upside
down, and out of it fell a beautiful
gold ring and twenty brightgold coins:
Then every one wished that he had
only thought of moving the stone in
stead Of going around it and finding
fault with his neighbor.
There are many people still who lose
prizes because they think it easier to
find falut than to do the work which
lies before them. Suck people do not
usually blame themselves, but think it
is all on account of bad luck and hard
tso,os