“There’s the very thing!” cried the farmer. “Quick! out with the men and the carts, and we’ll have the hay in at once!”
His wife still grumbled, but it was of no use. Bernard was obstinate. He declared that he was not going to pay half-a-crown for nothing, and that, as he had an opinion from his lawyer, he would follow it whatever happened. In fact, he set the example himself, and urging his men to the greatest speed, did not return to his home till all the hay was safely housed.
During the night the weather suddenly changed. An unforeseen storm burst over the valley. In the morning a stream flowed through the meadows carrying in its current the newly cut hay of all the neighbors. Bernard alone saved his.
From that day forward he followed the lawyer’s advice, and in course of time became one of the richest farmers in the district. Nor did he forget that he owed his success to the lawyer, to whom he carried every year a couple of fat fowls.—Selected.
Anger and haste hinder good counsel.
THE SOLDIER’S DREAM
Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lowered,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;