A man was out shoveling the excess gravel off his driveway and
into the graveled road that ran by his house. A neighbor happened
to be walking by just as the man tossed a shovel full down the road
the opposite way the man used to drive in and out. "I see you
aren't messing up the part of the road you use," sneered the neighbor.
A few minutes later another neighbor happened by and saw the
man toss a shovel full of gravel down the other part of the road. "I
see you are fixing only the part of the road you use, and not the
part others must use," sneered the second neighbor.
The shoveler stood still with a shovel full of gravel as the
second man left. Now unsure of what to do with it that would be
agreeable to his neighbors, he decided simply to dump it out onto
his driveway on the very spot whence he had scooped it up. Just as
he did so, a third neighbor happened to be walking by. "I see you
are stealing gravel from the road for your driveway," sneered the
third man. "People like you are what's wrong with this country."
At this point the homeowner put his shovel away and sat down
with his pipe to contemplate these occurrences. Pretty soon a
neighbor from further down the street drove by and saw the man
sitting down enjoying his pipe. "If you weren't so lazy, you'd
shovel some of that gravel off your driveway and back onto the road
where it belongs," the driver sneered as he drove away, spinning his
tires and scattering gravel in every direction.
A Good Horse and a Better
A man once came upon a lad about midday skipping stones across
a pond. "Hello, young man," he said, approaching. "What brings you
here on a school day?"
"I wrote a poem yesterday which was the best in class, and the
teacher said I could play today while the other children wrote
more poems."
"Well, then, you are to be congratulated. Yours is certainly a
deed of distinction. And as a reward," he added, settling himself
on a tree stump, "let me tell you a story about two horses."
"Oh, yes, do," the youth said eagerly, sitting down at the
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