"I didn't know that," said Mollie.
"Oh my, yes!" returned the Unwiseman. "You can't be a plumber unless you have strong eyes. It is very bad for a weak-eyed person to have to sit on the floor and look at a pipe all day. That is one reason why I'm not going to be a plumber. The other reason is that they never get any rest. They work all day eying pipes, and then have to sit up all night making out bills, and then they burn their fingers on stoves, and they sometimes get their feet wet after springing a leak on a pipe, and, altogether, it isn't pleasant. People play jokes on plumbers, too; mean jokes. Why, I knew a plumber who was called out in the middle of the night once by a city man who was trying to be a farmer during the summer months, and what do you suppose the trouble was?"
"I'm sure I don't know," said Mollie. "What?"
"The city man said he'd come home late and found the well full of water, and what was worse, the colander was riddled with holes. Twelve o'clock at night, mind you, and one of these bitter cold summer nights you find down in New Jersey."
"That was awfully mean," said Mollie. "That is, it was if the city man didn't know any better."
"He did know better. He did it just for a joke," said the Unwiseman.
"And didn't the plumber put in a great big bill for that?" asked Mollie.
"Yes—but the city man couldn't pay it," said the Unwiseman. "That was the meanest part of the joke. He went and lost all his money afterward. I believe he did it just to spite the plumber."
"Well," said Mollie, "here we are at the top of the hill at last. Won't you change your mind and go down with us, just once?"