ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. g^ 



Another patron comes aroun':'. to the skim milk room; he left 100 

 pounds of milk in four cans at the weigh stand. He reasons like this. 

 "I may run short next time I come, so I will fill all these full; I have a- 

 score of little pigs at home and this skim milk will be as a soothing 

 syrup to them." He fills his four cans, thereby taking 180 pounds more 

 than belongs to him, and he goes his way. This continues until the 

 last patron arrives — a milk hauler. He is busily engaged in filling hig 

 cans, when suddfenly the hum of the separator ceases, the flow of milk 

 stops, and he is brought face to face with stern reality that the milk is 

 ■exhausted, and yet he has seven cans to be filled. As he looks in be- 

 wilderment upon the seven cans containing a vacuum; as he meditates 

 upon the fact he'll be called upon to explain the whys and wherefores of 

 the vacuum; as his thoughts go out to the patrons who have preceded 

 him and have been instrumental in bringing about this state of affairs, 

 a poetical idea comes to him something like this^': 



Tell me ye winged wings that round my pathway soar 



Do ye not know som.e spot where patrons steal no more? 



Some lone and pleasant place, some valley free from care 



Where theft is never known and nev^er enters there? 



The wild wind dwindles to a whisper low, 



And sighs for pity as it answers. No. 



Oh tell me sun, shining upon my face, 



In all your rounds have ye not seen some place 



To which patrons who steal can banished be, 



And then I can sail on a pleasant sea? 



The sun, blushing at what they had done. 



Stands still for a while and answers, "Nary one." 



Tell me. Justice, seated upon your throne. 



Is there no place where they can find a home, 



Where they from temptation will be free 



And not take milk which belongs to me? 



Justice smiling spreads aside the vail 



And loudly and quickly answers, "Yes in jail." 



And when the farmer, weary and dusty, returns' to his home from the 

 labors of the day, gathers: together his milk cans only to find them empty, 

 as he stands by the swill barrel a nd listens' to the grunting and skiueaiing 

 of his pigs, he soliloquises thus: 



"Who steals my purse, steals trash. 'Tis sjomething, nothing. 

 'Twas mine. 'Tis his, and has been the slave of thousands'." But he 



