'Yes, perhaps,' he replied, 'but it is very bad for corn; I don't think
we'll have half a crop.'

"A few days later, I met him again. 'This is a fine sun for corn, Mr.
N.'

"'Yes,' said he, 'but it's awful for rye; rye wants cold weather.'

"One cool morning soon after, I said: 'This is a capital day for rye.'

"'Yes,' he said, 'but it is the worst kind of weather for corn and
grass; they want heat to bring them forward.'"

There are a vast number of fidgety, nervous, and eccentric people who
live only to expect new disappointments or to recount their old ones.

"Impatient people," said Spurgeon, "water their miseries, and hoe up
their comforts."

"Let's see," said a neighbor to a farmer, whose wagon was loaded down
with potatoes, "weren't we talking together last August?" "I believe
so." "At that time, you said corn was all burnt up." "Yes." "And
potatoes were baking in the ground." "Yes." "And that your district
could not possibly expect more than half a crop." "I remember." "Well,
here you are with your wagon loaded down. Things didn't turn out so
badly, after all,--eh?" "Well, no-o," said the farmer, as he raked his
fingers through his hair, "but I tell you my geese suffered awfully for
want of a mud-hole to paddle in."

What is a pessimist but "a man who looks on the sun only as a thing that