Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1916 — PHILOSOPHY' OF WALT MASON [ARTICLE]

PHILOSOPHY' OF WALT MASON

Every morning John, the granger, looked w’ith sadness on hig corn, for it was in deadly danger, by the hot winds seared and torn. Through the weary weeks he’d tilled it — only nightfall made him stophoping by his toil to build it into something like a crop. It was perishing for water, and the heavens leaked no more; every day was fiercer, hotter, than the day that went before. And it seemed to John, the granger, as he watched hig corn crop go, that henceforth he’d be a stranger to all things but grief and woe. But when once suspense was ended, and he knew the crop was gone, “Next year’s crop may well be splendid, and I’ll bank on that,” said John. “Two bad years don’t come ..together—that would be too fierce, gadzooks! So next year we’ll have such weather as we read about in books.” Thus the buoyant, hopeful mortal rises when the worst is known, to surprise you with a chortle when you're looking for a groan.