Lee's Funnies

 

An old man lived with his hound-dog, Mace, in a run-down shack on the
outskirts of town. He had no family and only a few meager possessions,
a table and chair, a bed, a bag of hand tools, and his dog.

He used the tools to do odd jobs in town, for which he usually would
be paid enough to get food for the next day. Mace and his master lived
from one day to the next on what little these jobs would bring in. The
dog was just a normal hound, with one exception: while most dogs like
to chew on grass occasionally, Mace loved it. When the old man was in
town, Mace would spend the day in the yard in front of the house,
chewing away on the lawn.

One bright, sunny day the old man said goodbye to his dog and headed
into town to work. He had a plumbing repair job in one of the homes
there that would take him most of the day and would probably pay
enough for food for the remainder of the week, if he managed the money
carefully. He headed for town with a spring in his step and a whistle
on his lips.

Inside the house and ready to start, the old man reached in the bag
for his wrench. To his surprise, he didn't feel it. He dug around
again, but there didn't seem to be any wrench. He looked in the bag,
then dumped its contents on the floor, but still no wrench. Reality
set in. Without a wrench he couldn't finish the job, and without pay
he couldn't even buy food for that night's supper, let alone tomorrow.
When he finally came to grips with reality, he told the lady who hired
him what the situation was. While she sympathized with his situation,
the job needed to be done. If the old man couldn't do it, she would
have to hire someone else. The old man packed up his tools and headed
home, head bowed and shoulders stooped. The whistle was gone and no
longer was there a spring in his step. A walk that normally took 15
minutes seemed to last forever. But finally the old shack came into
view, and there was Mace in the distance, munching away as usual on
the lawn. When the dog saw his master, he came running, tail wagging,
telling the old man how glad he was to see him.

Kneeling beside the hound, the man began to pet him, and through
tear-filled eyes told the dog that there would be no supper tonight
and no food tomorrow.

What's more, without money to buy a new wrench, he had no idea what
the future held. It was the loneliest, most helpless feeling he ever
had.

Then he caught a glimpse of something shining in the grass. As the old
man went over to see what this shining material was, his despair
turned in an instant to joy. It was the wrench! The old man had
dropped it on his way out that morning, and it would have been lost
forever had Mace not been eating farther away from the house than he
usually did.

The old man grabbed the dog, gave him a hug that almost suffocated
him, and ran into the house. Reaching for a stub of pencil and the
only piece of paper he had, he wrote a moving tribute to his canine
companion.

Few people have ever heard these words...until now, that is. One man
who did happen to read them changed them a bit and had his name
recorded in music history.

The old man never did get the credit he deserved. But now you are
privileged to read the beginning line of his original poem, which
went:

"A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for me."


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