AN old gentleman who was always bragging how folks used to work in his
young days, one time challenged his two sons to pitch on a load of hay
as fast as he could load it.
The challenge was accepted and the hay-wagon driven round and the trial
commenced. For some time the old man held his own very creditably,
calling out, tauntingly, "More hay! more hay!"
Thicker and faster it came. The old man was nearly covered; still he
kept crying, "More hay! more hay!" until struggling to keep on the top
of the disordered and ill-arranged heap, it began first to roll, then to
slide, and at last off it went from the wagon, and the old man with it.
"What are you down here for?" cried the boys.
"I came down after hay," answered the old man, stoutly.
Which was a literal fact. He had come down after the wagon load, which
had to be pitched on again rather more deliberately.