WHAT THE GARBAGE CAN TOLD ROBERT
I
One day as Robert was going through the kitchen, he heard his mother talking to the maid. “Nora,” she said, “I wish that you would be careful to keep the garbage can covered.” Robert hurried away to school and thought no more about it.
That night, after he fell asleep, he dreamed that he was visiting at his cousin’s house. He thought that he was going down the back steps when suddenly he heard a weak little voice.
“Oh, dear,” it was saying, “I feel so wretched! Oh, dear! can you get a doctor, please?”
Robert looked around, but there was nothing in sight.
“Oh, dear, oh, dear!” came the weak little voice again. “Oh, can’t somebody help me!”
“Why, who’s talking?” asked Robert. “I don’t see anybody. I’d like to help you, if I knew who you were.”
“It’s I—Garbage Can,” answered the voice. “Here I am—look down, please.”
Robert looked down, and there sure enough stood the garbage can, which he had failed to notice, looking up at him. You can imagine how surprised he was.
“Why, I didn’t know you could talk!” he exclaimed.
“If you knew how miserable I feel, you would not bother about that, but would take off my lid,” said the garbage can.
Then Robert saw how really ill the garbage can looked.
“You poor thing!” he exclaimed; “why, certainly I will lift your lid if that will help you.” As he raised the cover, a loaf of stale bread, a pork chop, and some apple parings fell out.
Oh, Thank You!
That is Better.
“Oh, thank you! That is better,” sighed the garbage can. “What a relief!”
“Shall I get a doctor?” asked Robert anxiously.
“Oh, no, thank you; I don’t need a doctor now. I feel almost like myself again,” he answered.
“If folks only wouldn’t fill me so full of rich good food,” he complained, “how much better off everybody would be!”
“Too full of rich good food!” laughed Robert. “Why, I never knew that any rich good food was thrown away.”
“We get entirely too much of it,” said the garbage can. “Waste food is the only kind that is good for garbage cans.”
“Do many people waste good food?” asked Robert.
“What some folks throw away makes me sick!” declared the garbage can confidentially. “I could tell you some things, young man, that would certainly surprise you.”
“Please tell me, if you feel able,” begged Robert.
“Very well,” agreed the garbage can, settling down comfortably. Anyone could see that he was pleased.
II
“In the first place,” he began, “do you know that we American garbage cans are the hardest worked of all garbage cans in the world?”
“No,” Robert shook his head.
“It’s a fact, though,” went on the garbage can. “The American garbage can is the fattest in the world,—a United States senator first said so.”
“Why, what did that mean?” asked Robert. “American garbage cans don’t look any fatter than those in other countries, do they?”
“The senator referred to the rich food that is thrown into the American garbage can,” explained the speaker patiently. “He meant that the American people are the most wasteful people in the world. They do not save little things. Few people stop to think how long it takes grains of wheat to grow into a loaf of bread. Did you ever think how hard somebody had to work to get the wheat grains ready to make the bread?”
“No,” acknowledged Robert, “I don’t believe I ever did.”
“If people did think, we should not be stuffed every day with bread enough to feed many a poor family.”
“Oh, not that much, surely?” questioned Robert in surprise.
“Yes, sir,” declared the garbage can, “that much. I ought to know! I have been a garbage can all my life.”
“Yes, you ought to know,” agreed Robert.
“Not only bread,” went on the garbage can, “but meat, too. Now, that does surprise you, doesn’t it! It takes four years to grow a beefsteak, yet there are garbage cans which are fed nice big pieces of beefsteak every day or so.”
“I don’t believe—,” Robert started to say.
“Don’t believe what?” snapped the garbage can. “Don’t believe! Why, I haven’t begun to tell you about the value of garbage!”
“Please excuse me,” explained Robert; “I was going to say that I don’t think my mother allows such waste.”
“Oh, was that it? I beg your pardon,” apologized the can. “I get so excited when I think about what is wasted, and so nervous when I see little children and even animals who need what is thrown away, that I sometimes forget my manners, I fear.”
Robert could not help smiling at the thought of the manners of a garbage can; but the can evidently thought that he was smiling about some of the facts he had been told, and continued to talk.
“Watch when you have a chance, and notice what good meals could have been made from the food wasted on garbage cans if a little thought had been used.
“It has been estimated that the garbage cans get one-third of the food which is bought and prepared for the American people.
“This food, if used rightly, would feed all the poor. It would build many battleships. It would pay for all the land in some states. It would run the government for weeks.”
“Would it make any difference in the cost of food if people were not wasteful?” asked Robert, as the speaker paused for breath.
“Of course,” answered the can. “You see, if food is very plentiful it does not cost so much because there is enough for everybody; but when it is scarce it costs more because there is only enough for those who can afford to pay a high price.”
“Oh, so people who buy food and waste it make it scarcer, and prevent the poorer people from getting it at a lower price,” said Robert.
“Good! I see you understand!” cried the garbage can. “Not only is what you say true, but the fact is that the poor people who waste food are often kept poor because they throw away what they could save. A slice of bread a day amounts to about a dollar and fifty cents a year! Better to watch the garbage can!”
The can stopped suddenly as the rumble of a wagon sounded in the street.
“It is the garbage collector!” he exclaimed delightedly. “If it were not for him, I am sure I don’t know what I should do!”
“Good-by,” said Robert, who did not care to have the collector see him talking with a garbage can. “I thank you for the lesson, Mr. Can.”
“Good-by,” muttered the garbage can; and then his face melted away and Robert woke up.
QUESTIONS
Why would doctors have to work many times as hard as they do if there were no garbage collectors?
How do the garbage collectors help in keeping people well?