Show LUCK versus ENERGY j original 1 this talk said the lounger in the country store about hard work abeln at the bottom of big fortunes Is all bosar there a more fortunes started by savin than hard work more by rascality than by savin and more by luck than either did I 1 ever tell you about tommy shirk the laziest man in the state well atte it to you tommy married phoebe autta and tom bad ten acres 0 land piat wouldn t even grow blackberries lie buttered puttered putt ered along tryan to git it or pretend ln to till halt his wife a money had been eaten up then phoebe said hed bare to find some way of mahln a tommy was a good deal cut up by this and went oft to a corner of his land that was overgrown with weeds and lay down to think it over bis nose right down on the ground he ameled kerosene at first he thought some un had spilled it a lantern but on up the dirt with bis knife b found that oil was from below and the burder he went down the mare of it there was well tom went home and told his wife that there was oil on the prop erty she laughed at him but ba took her to the spot and let her smell it bom tuk his spade with him an made a hole an proved to his alfes satis faction that the oil came from below she bad hid away in a ln and in less n a month that money was gola the ln als about as faff as a well was abeln sunk where the oil was airs shirk was almost crazy seen they kep bolln without gettan all but she resolved to put it all in an take dose was at tn end aw night she banded over the last dollar and had not struck ou she was too broken up to pay the money benely to she gave it to tom tellin him to notify digger that be funds were all abot to come back no more tom he started but abeln dreadful lazy laid down to smoke bis pipe lie went to sleep and dlan t wake up till the men had gone home then be went to the tavern and spent the money but he dlan t say about it to bis wife the next day after dinner mrs shirk was the and ein agn with ber tears when the boss come to the door and said mrs shirk we ye got down to where there s oil but its not a well it ba to bo pumped up the shirk family was in a more tan position than before there was oil at the bottom of a well but no means 0 gettan it up it tom haan hadn t been so cussed lazy be might have done some himself weeks passed and the family was on to one night a big storm come lip a regular cloudburst and when moraln corn a creek that bad run a mile from the shirk farm bad been turned from its channel and was a not a hundred yards from the bouse mrs shirk tuk on lament ln that the water must run right over the oil well and they d never git but water it tommy who was a cheerful feller them worthless cusses always Is tried to console her but there warn t no use so be said bed go and see about it perty soon become back and said to his wife phoebe the creek Is a right by the well not over 11 well then ohe answered it you ve got a spark 0 energy left you 11 go to work pump out some oil sell it and git us to eat I 1 got a better scheme n that be said I 1 don t want to bear none 0 your schemes the indignant wife answered I 1 want to see some work no brains tor schemes said tom and be went away there was an old water wheel on the place to which a former owner of property bad dug a sluice and bad run a saw tommy shirk was too lazy 9 do any work himself but he hired a man on tick to haul the cheel to his well then be went home and tuk down the pump and tuk it to the well loo he rigged the pump to the water wheel which was turned by the stream blat as the oil begun 9 flow along comes mrs shirk tom was on his back with bis bat over his eyes bis pipe ills wife not no ticen the and heeln tom taken it easy begun to fire words it him foai raised bis hand without even iffla bis bat offen bis face and pointed lit the pump out oil that was the last time mn shirk ever spoke disrespectful to ber bus band she admitted that if b was laaby be bad two redeem ln p ints luck and ingenuity tom connected his well with a pipe line that run near by and the oil ran merrily shirk charging it up at atie market price per barret ills well produced about twenty barrels a day and even with oil at GO cents a barrel be made about 10 a day alme by he sunk another well and got an other supply of oil about as large as the first the same stream and water wheel and pump did the work and tom bad only tomake out a bill for 20 where before be bad made out one tor HO conf shirk still smokes bis pipe in the sup with bis bat over his eyes but be usually does it on the porch of a one bouse be has built on the spot bis cabin used to be mrs shirk fans coma to consider bam a prodigy of genius and they all git a lot 0 good their oil wella when they want to go aay e s IM the pump go on well af a in the daytime ahalt means by oils yarn 1 alm me the ode andgree and glee the other tiller tb argy MARK |