The Ploughboy 



The brawny blacksmith minister punished 

 his feeble brother without any show of mercy 

 for every trivial offense or mistake or pathetic 

 little shortcoming. All the neighbors pitied 

 him, especially the women, who never missed 

 an opportunity to give him kind words, cookies, 

 and pie; above all, they bestowed natural 

 sympathy on the poor imbecile as if he were 

 an unfortunate motherless child. In particu- 

 lar, his nearest neighbors, Scotch Highlanders, 

 warmly welcomed him to their home and never 

 wearied in doing everything that tender sym- 

 pathy could suggest. To those friends he ran 

 away at every opportunity. But after years of 

 suffering from overwork and punishment his 

 feeble health failed, and he told his Scotch 

 friends one day that he was not able to work any 

 more or do anything that his brother wanted 

 him to do, that he was beaten every day, 

 and that he had come to thank them for their 

 kindness and to bid them good-bye, for he was 

 going to drown himself in Muir's lake. "Oh, 

 Charlie! Charlie!" they cried, "you mustn't 

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