Yes, I was thirty-four years learning that one sentence. "You can't get
something for nothing." That is, getting it in partial tune. It took me
so long because I was naturally bright. It takes that kind longer than
a human being. They are so smart you cannot teach them with a few
bumps. They have to be pulverized.
That sentence takes me back to the days when I was a "hired man" on the
farm. You might not think I had ever been a "hired man" on the farm at
ten dollars a month and "washed, mended and found." You see me here on
this platform in my graceful and cultured manner, and you might not
believe that I had ever trained an orphan calf to drink from a copper
kettle. But I have fed him the fingers of this hand many a time. You
might not think that I had ever driven a yoke of oxen and had said the
words. But I have!
I remember the first county fair I ever attended. Fellow sufferers, you
may remember that at the county fair all the people sort out to their
own departments. Some people go to the canned fruit department. Some go
to the fancywork department. Some go to the swine department. Everybody
goes to his own department. Even the "suckers"! Did you ever notice
where they go? That is where I went—to the "trimming department."
I was in the "trimming department" in five minutes. Nobody told me
where it was. I didn't need to be told. I gravitated there. The barrel
always shakes all of one size to one place. You notice that—in a city
all of one size get together.
Right at the entrance to the "local Midway" I met a gentleman. I know
he was a gentleman because he said he was a gentleman. He had a little
light table he could move quickly. Whenever the climate became too
sultry he would move to greener pastures. On that table were three
little shells in a row, and there was a little pea under the middle
shell. I saw it there, being naturally bright. I was the only naturally
bright person around the table, hence the only one who knew under which
shell the little round pea was hidden.
Even the gentleman running the game was fooled. He thought it was under
the end shell and bet me money it was under the end shell. You see,
this was not gambling, this was a sure thing. (It was!) I had saved up
my money for weeks to attend the fair. I bet it all on that middle
shell. I felt bad. It seemed like robbing father. And he seemed like a
real nice old gentleman, and maybe he had a family to keep. But I would
teach him a lesson not to "monkey" with people like me, naturally
bright.
But I needn't have felt bad. I did not rob father. Father cleaned me
out of all I had in about five seconds.
I went over to the other side of the fairgrounds and sat down. That was
all I had to do now—just go, sit down. I couldn't see the mermaid now
or get into the grandstand.
Sadly I thought it all over, but I did not get the right answer. I said
the thing every fool does say when he gets bumped and fails to learn
the lesson from the bump. I said, "Next time I shall be more careful."
When anybody says that he is due for a return date.
