My Grandpa's Mules | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: My Grandpa's Mules | Previous Challenge Entry
By CL Gammon
02/28/05
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When I was very young my parents would often take me to visit my grandparents‘ farm. My grandpa -- already in his late seventies -- liked to do things the old fashioned way. He still farmed with a team of mules long after his neighbors had bought tractors. “Those shining, clanking contraptions,” he called them. He called his mules Johnny and Red.
Early one morning I was digging for fishing worms near grandpa’s barn when I heard grandpa yelling at the top of his lungs from inside. “Red, you lazy, sorry, good for nothing thing! I ought to sell you!”
Curious, I wandered inside to see what the commotion was about. The barn was quite dark, but I clearly saw Pap struggling to get Red “hitched up” while Johnny, already fully harnessed, stood patiently waiting to go to work.
When grandpa saw me, he smiled and said “hi boy.”
I was surprised. Grandpa did not seem at all angry. “I thought you were mad at Red,” I said.
Grandpa laughed. “No, I’m not mad at Red,” he said. “What made you think that?”
“Well,” I replied, “Red was giving trouble and I thought he had made you mad. Then I had an idea. “Why don‘t. you treat Johnny better than Red? That will teach him.”
Grandpa laughed again, then he explained the situation to me. “You see, he said, “Johnny is tame and works hard. He never gives me any trouble, while Red is lazy and stubborn and it is hard you get him to do anything. But getting mad, or treating Johnny better would be wrong. Favoritism only hurts; it doesn’t teach. If I treat both my mules the same, then maybe Red will come around and start acting more like Johnny. But if I treat Johnny better, he will get lazy too. I’m too old to deal with two lazy mules.”
“But if you weren’t mad, then why were you yelling?” I asked.
Grandpa laughed heartily and responded, “I like the sound of the echo my yelling makes in this old barn. Now get out of here and let me get this lazy mule hooked up.”

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