Free press., 1908-03-14
uo&kk&hD n.

Mighty tough luck, 1 call it," said
the disconsoiate-looking young man.
well, 1 guess you might call 4
that" agreed the philosopher with the
brier pipe. 1T never happened to you
before, did it?'
Il sh'd say not" said the young
man. How often do you think
thing like that is going to happen to
man?"
Il don't suppose that particular
thing would happen very often" said
the philosopher with the brier pipe,
but in a general way misfortunes will
happen and after awhile you get used
to them. You can get used to any
thing, and once you do get used to it
you don't mind it. You won't get
roped in just that way again, but
you'll get roped in some other way.
and pretty soon you'll kind of look for
il, and when it happens yo&won't say
much more than That's what l ex-
pected' So the old man bunkoed you,
did he?"
Yes, sir" replied the young man.
Right on top of that I got the
bounce"
You'll get used to that said the
philosopher. You won't mind it near
ly so much after you've been hunting
it a week or two. l knew a fellow
once who was fired from almost every
job he got The first time he felt
mighty bad about it and went around
thinking he was disgraced, but in
year from then if he stayed a month
in one place and wasn't fired he'd
quiC anyway. It's all what you're
used to-
How long do you think it would
take for you to learn to like it?"
sneered the young man.
Il couldn't say" replied the phil
osopher. Il never tried it myself, but
I've had lots of other misfortunes. l
lost a pair of overshoes yesterday. l
guess I've lost more pairs of over
Shoes than anybody else in the coun-
try. l take them off somewhere and
then go away and leave em, and for
get where. You see, my feet get too
warm. l don't mean to say that's
anything serious, but it's happened to
me so often that 1 hardly notice it
now. l just go and buy me another
pair Of overshoes. But l can remem
ber the first pair lost and / was sick
over it,"
Maybe you didn't have the money
TO go and buy you another pair in
them days. suggested the young
man.
That may be true, too," said the
philosopher. But you can get used
to being without money. It's incon-
venient, but it's incoavenient to go
without eating for meal OF two.
You can get used to that and be the
better for it. When you talk about
eating there's the things that you eat
l can eat more burned steak and sour
heavy bread and not mind it than
anybody you ever saw. Why? Be-
cause live out where you can't hire
cook for love or money. Even the
poor ones quit, and I've got so used
to their quitting that it doesn't put me
out. We have to bear things which
are very painful to us at first, but
our feelings get blunted. Perhaps,
too, our troubles are imaginary to a
great extent. l saw a lumber-jack
who'd just been paid off sit down in
restaurant and after looking all
over the bill-of-fare order pork and
beans.
I've been kicking on pork and
beans for the last two MONTHS he
told me, but don't see anything here
that want more, after ALL Some
how, just feel like pork and beans
now"
Il won't call for any more deals
like got" said the young man. You
can bet on that"
You'll get married some of these
days, l shouldn't wonder" pursued the
philosopher But you'll get used to
that. After ten or twelve years of
it you'll hardly murmur Yes, trouble
comes to all of us, but we get case
hardened to it. Things that hurt us
like the mischief at first we get so we
don't notice"
Il know one thing that hurts like
the mischief at first and you don't get
used to it, either
What's that?"
"a mustard plaster" replied the
young man.
EmphaticalIy.
An acquaintance called on some