Show the cu ra 0 of an active mind bli father fop bor the greater parrot of his bis life was wag in the steamboat t business ua ile was an dill cial of a company ope operating packets on the lower ohio river tile the headquarters of tile the line wok was the gathering place or oc pilots captains routes clerks and engine ersa 9 collection or of quaint types type aud and homely philosophers ono ona of the regular visitors was waa a grizzled master masier who had bad na as quick a wit and as gorgeous gorgeous gorge oua an inventive faculty as any aby man I 1 ever saw nig ills fictions and fables told with an air of sincerity were local clas classics slem I 1 was waa a boy but I 1 still remember it as aa though it were yesterday when on a summer afternoon the talk drifted to the alie subject of mules somebody ventured tile the opinion that tile the mule wag a stupid animal instantly our champion romancer spoke 3 up i dont you believe it he said aid the average mule pas has got mora MOM sense than tile the ave average rage horse h lias ua got abata more every n mule ule has got something that no horse ever had and imagination why I 1 know of an instance when abea a mulo was killed hilled by tile the power of his imagination I 1 A i it happened happe Aed forty years yeara ago when iwas I 1 was a young shaver on tny my uncles uncle farm up the tennessee river my bly uncle owned ed an old gray itai mule inu lo 10 iler he lintl the aulik boulo ow on pasture in a ten ocre acre lot inthe in middle m iddle of the lot jot was a long crib full of popcorn along about the middle oi of july cume came the lie t most terrific lot hot spell p that ever occurred in ahll country tho the thermometer yent went to JIB jn in 1113 shade and stayed right there day nn and night light lor or three weeks at the end of fhe third week on the hottest bottest day of all the sun set fire ib 16 the roof of that corncrib and it burned to tile the ground naturally the heat popped all the corn and it fell three inches dop deep nil all ver over 0 that ten acre lot the mule thought it was waa snow und and laid down in its tracks and froage broic to death |