The Inquisitive Man by the Roadside
It is not surprising therefore that when a real old gentleman who had served his community and even his state acceptably in his more active days, observed an absolute stranger walking rapidly up the road, he should have meandered out to the front gate for a little closer inspection.
The traveler was evidently in haste, but was brought up to a short turn with an interrogation from the old gentleman that it would have been very impolite to have ignored. Then followed a conversation which is yet occasionally referred to after more than half a century.
“You seem to be in a hurry today.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Where did you come from?”
“I came from Monkton.”
“When did you leave there?”
“Day before yesterday.”
“Where did you stay last night?”
“I stayed in Goshen.”
“Where are you going today?”
“I am going to Jericho.”
“What are you going to Jericho for?”
“I am going to school.”
“A man as old as you going to school! What are you going to school for?”
“I am going to school to see if I can’t learn how to mind my own business.”
The stranger passed on and left the old man thinking it over. The more he thought it over the more he was sure it was a good joke on himself, and being a genuine Yankee, he enjoyed the joke just as well as though it had been on someone else and it soon became well known to his acquaintances.
But while the interchange of civilities among near or more or less remote neighbors who chance to meet in the highway, is quite prone to touch upon the humorous episodes which are constantly happening to normal human beings, there is occasionally a glimpse of the pathetic.