The Struggling Writer
One day, a bearded young man who was, in fact, a serious writer, entered the offices of Ewe & Lamb, the famous publishers. "I have a new novel which has taken me eight years to write. It is the story of my life and I have starved and lived in cold, drafty places, just so I could devote my time to writing it," the young man said. Mr. Ewe, of Ewe & Lamb, told the young man he would be happy to read his novel, and did so that very he said, "and I think it is the best novel in the world. We shall publish night. The next morning the young man was awakened by a knock on the door of his cold, drafty room. It was the famous publisher. "I have read your novel," it and you will earn a handsome royalty!" The young man could not believe his ears, but that very afternoon a contract was signed guaranteeing him one dollar for every copy of his novel sold. The novel sold forty-two copies. Moral: Ewe can't judge a book.
The Plucky Shoeshine Boy
In a big city in a far-off country there lived a lad who was very, very poor. He had to work all day to earn money to help maintain his widowed mother and his numerous brothers and sisters in most meager circumstances. One day, on his way to his menial labors, he found a fifty-cent piece. Resisting the temptation to buy a hot breakfast, he invested instead in a bottle of shoe polish, a brush and some rags, and became a shoeshine boy. After three weeks of shining shoes, he had made forty cents and owed a shoeshine equipment supplier eighty-five cents. Eighteen years later, that same lad, now a grown man, opened his own shoeshine equipment factory. He was bankrupt in six months. Moral: Nothing succeeds.
The Faithful Collie
Happy O'Hara and his Wonder-Dog, Pal, were the toast of vaudeville. At a signal from Happy, Pal would stand on his hind legs, walk across the stage and tap out "Yankee Doodle" on a xylophone. He also would do sums, giving the totals in rapid short barks. Vaudeville died and Happy and Pal were not heard from for years. One day, however, a famous television producer, who was planning a million-dollar variety show, recalled having seen the act while a lad in Canajoharie, New York. "I shall put them on television and pay them a veritable fortune," he declared. The famous producer phoned Happy, who was elated at this good news. So was Pal, who wagged his tail and barked three times, his way of showing joy. Happy immediately started working with the now aged Pal, brushing up on the walking trick, the xylophone trick and the wonderful addition trick, all of which Pal had virtually forgotten through long years of disuse. On the day of their audition for the famous producer. Pal–exhausted by hours of rehearsal–trotted to stage center, rolled over, yawned, and went to sleep. Moral: You can't teach an old dog.
The Thrifty Farmer
Farmer Jones had the nicest farm in the world. He devoted every minute of his day to it, and was very thrifty in operating it. Farmer Jones knew exactly how much fodder was needed for the cows. He measured it every morning at seven o'clock. He knew how many potatoes a bag of seed would yield. He weighed the new picked potatoes every afternoon at four o'clock. But his pride and joy, and the mainstay of his husbandry, was his large flock of superior fowl, all of which were purebred Plymouth Rocks. One evening, at seven forty-five, a thief broke into Farmer Jones' house while Farmer Jones was taking a census in the hen-house (as was his daily wont) and stole his life's savings. Farmer Jones lost his farm at a foreclosure sale the following weekend. Moral: Don't count your chickens.
