From: owner-humor
To: Multiple recipients of list HUMOR
Subject: HUMOR: A Missouri fable <ironic>
Date: Sunday, April 10, 1994 11:14PM

A Missouri Fable by John Ciardi


A man named Finchley once
without thinking much about
it broke into the premises of
Mr. Billy Jo Trant of these
parts, by which felonious
entry he meant to separate
Mr. Billy Jo from various
properties, but stepping on
a noise without thinking
enough about it woke Mr.
Billy Jo who took in hand a
Colt .45 and, improving the
order of his rebuttal, fired
three times in an entirely
accurate way and then said
"Hands up!" without thinking
that the man named Finchley
once was not listening as
carefully as he might have
had Mr. Billy Jo thought to
disagree with him in a
slightly different order.

Moral: commit yourself to
another man's premises and
you may, in logic, have to
accept his conclusion.

