Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-08-08

Now / dwelt in a city and the lab
or of the weeks was heavy, so it
came to pass as Summer Approach
ed, that every year l went, on Va
cation. And ofttimes / rode upon a
Stage in the hills of Vermont, the
Driver whereof was a man of ex-
perience. And he spake to me Oft
times, and every years this was the
burden of his complaint:
Behold, thou contest here again on
thy vacation, being a man who toilest
not, nor spinnest, nor gatherest into
barns, and the Greater Part of those
Old Summer Time come Likewise;
but / drive this Condemned Old Stage
Year in and Year out, Wet or Dry,
Hot or Cold, and for Forty Years /
have had no Vacation.
Now when / had heard this many
times, wrote to the Manager of the
Stage Route, saying:
Behold this Driver of thy Company
hath served long, and hath never had
Vacation; give him Two Weeks,
that he may have Vacation like I'M
to the Rest of Mankind.
And they did as / made request of
them; and they sent Another Driver
to Drive the Stage for Two Weeks,
that he might have a Vacation.
And the Next Summer as / came
that way, asked him concerning his
Vacation, and where and how he had
Spent it.
And he relieved himself of a bur-
den he had been carrying, namely,
a mouthful of Tobacco Juice, and
thus he made answer:
The first Day, being Monday, l
rode with the New Driver to show
him the Road; and because he was
slow to Learn rode with him also on
Tuesday. And on Wednesday fear
ed lest the Bay Mare should have
cast a Shoe, and / rode with him
again, and stopped at the Blacksmith
Shop in the place midway, for there
dwelleth the only Smith who knoweth
how to- Shoe Horses as they ought to
be shod. And on Thursday Widow
Skies was going to Town, and / knew
her Trunk must go, and / feared lest
that Substitute Driver should have
forgotten it. And on Friday it look
ed as if it would Rain, and was no,
kind of Day for man to be starting
on his Vacation, so / rode on the
day it did Rain, and was no kind of
Day for man to be sitting around
inside the House with Nothing to Do,
so / rode again that day. And on
Monday there were lot of City
Folks who had been out in the Hills
for the Week End, going back to the
City, and some of them were a leetle
Mite p'tic1ar, and i thought i might
as well Go Long, and see them git on
the Train. And Tuesday realized
that the Time was MORN Half Gone
and a Teller couldn't do Nothing in
One Week Nohow,S SO I just contin-
nered to Ride on the Stage with the
Substitute Driver, and Show him
How. And by the End Of the Second
Week he was Pretty GOOD Driver, /
and if / could have had Vacation
then, could have trusted him to run
the Stage.
Thus spake to me the Driver, who
had always complained that he had
never had Vacation.
And | meditated much concerning
what he had said to me.
And / said, 0 my God, let me not
plain of the blessings they do not
to Do with them if they had them.
The American disposition is to
carry everything too far. In no other
country in the world are there so
many foolish fads foolishly followed.
can get up an excitement on
any street corner. The soap box
orator is the man of the hour, every
body listening to him and too many
believing what he says. We go too
far and too fast.