Evening star., 1914-07-11
Pigeons Are Not Paying.

Poor Jim doesn't say a word about his
pigeons To date his expenditures have
been S21.65 and his gross income has beer,
S1GO. He insists that he will yet make
money from the undertaking. but it is
plainly to be seen that he is discouraged
and that only pride keeps him from
throwing up the sponge. He spends hours
watching his pigeons and wondering why
they don't lay eggs and hatch squads. No
one ever worked harder or more faith
fully to make an undertaking go. and
am convinced the fault is with the stock
he bought. and not with Jim.
The deepest sympathy l have goes out
to jim He is worth two or three of
Ned when it comes to work. yet every
thing seems to come Ned's way. They
are equal partners in the popcorn VEN
ture. and I'm certain Jim has done three
tifths of the work. Ned is an artist at
pretending to be busy and in '.tollying'
some one else to do his work for him.
Tuesday it was Neds turn to work the
popcorn Instead of doing il he hong
swoggled Will Jarvis into pushing the
cultivator up and down the rows. 1t
transpired that Will wanted to go SWIM
ming that evening, and that Ned had
agreed to milk the COW for him. Now,
Ned never milkcd "A COW in his life, and
he hadn't the slightest intention of try
ing. When it came almost milking time
and Will and Jim and Bud" Brown were
about ready to start for the swimming
hole Ned came into their midst holding
his right wrist and with his face con-
torted as if with pain. He declared he
had fallen and hurt his wrist, and prom
ised. if Will would milk for him that
evening, to take the job off Wills hands
two evenings in succession, as soon as
his wrist got we'll.
Jim and Bud" scentins that all was
not as it should be- announced that they
would wait until Will had finished the
ming hole they found Ned there. disport-
ing himself in the water, his lame wrist
apparently forgotten.
Bows Inflict Punishment.
When they came home. along about
dark, Ned had a tale of woe to tell. The
other boys. 1t seems, had tied knots in
the sleeves of his shirt. Not content
with this. they had soaked the knotted
sleeves in water and then rubbed them
IN the sand. When Ned came to chew
the rag he got sand in his teeth and
was very indignant young man. He
insisted I ought to punish the other boys
/ heard all their stories and reached the
conclusion that Ned was the one who
had punishment coming to him. l didn |
punish him, however. 1t seemed to me
the boys had beaten me to it.
l am not at all concerned for fear Ned
will fail to make his way in the world.
What l am afraid of is that that material
success he achieves will not bring him
real happiness. No doubt Rockefeller
and Carnegie got their millions by an
expansion of the methods which Ned em-
ploys. but l honestly doubt if they get
as much happiness out of life as do men
who acquire only what they toll for
All my life l have heard of the dignity
of toll and the sweetness to be found in
the rewards of labor. | never knew wha-
It meant until | went to the country. II
had seemed that my government lob wa,
something which was mine by right. that
my salary belonged to me so long as I re
ported at the office and did enough work
to get by with There was no such
thing as labor for the love of it. nor of
enjoying the fruits primarily because they
were the fruits of my labor It's diff
ferent now. When 1 sink my teeth into
a succulent ear of sweet corn, it's a
whole lot sweeter because 1 planted the
seed. watched it sprout and nursed and
tended it to maturity. When it was de-
creed that man should eat bread by the
sweat of his brow. it never was intended
that he should get full enjoyment from
the bread without the sweat.
L. S. NJ.