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Friday, May 9, 2025 |
Punny week - The old man and the hound   
Date: Sent Monday, February 16, 1998
Category: None | Rating: 1.84/5 (140 votes)
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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 the pay he couldn't even buy food for that
night's supper, let alone for 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 for 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 piece of 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 has 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."
Received from Cathy Gilstrap.
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