Sometimes the wood was cut into small pieces which made it easy to carry. Usually though they were long and heavy logs and these were the hardest for Muttie to carry on his back.
So there, you now know why he always walked bent over. Happy?
One day, while Muttie was “shlepping” wood from the forest to the lumberyard, he walked past a large field enclosed by a fence (wooden, of course, what else would they use?) and a sign that said “ Animals for sale… lowest prices and best deals in town!” Well, it wasn’t hard for it to be both the best deals and lowest prices as they were the only ones in town who sold animals.
To rest his aching back, Muttie put down the wood and sat leaning against an oak tree. As he looked over at the animals, a very strange thing happened. A little grey horse behind the fence winked at him! “Was it possible?” thought Muttie. “Did that little grey horse really wink at me?” A few minutes later he again glanced at the little grey horse. Sure enough, it winked at him again. “What’s happening here?” thought Muttie. “Everyone knows that horses can’t wink!”
Meanwhile, inside the yard, Moishe the animal salesman had noticed Muttie. “H-m-m,” he thought, “this could be a customer.” Not having sold an animal in quite a while (actually he had never sold anything to anyone) he decided to speak to him before Muttie could leave.
“Hello, hello, my good man,” Moishe said. “Welcome to the best used animal farm in town.” (Of course, you now know that it was the only one) “Which of these fine animals are you interested in? I can tell you, as the Lord is my witness, you will not find finer animals anywhere!”
“I’m not really interested in buying anything,” said Mattie. “I just stopped to rest my back.”
“You need to rest your back?” said Moishe. “You have to carry all that wood? Then I do have the perfect animal for you.” He pointed to a big brown horse. As Muttie looked at the big brown horse, he couldn’t help but also glance at the little grey horse. Guess what? It happened again. The little grey horse winked at him!
“What about that little grey one?” said Muttie.
“Ah,” said Moishe, “I can see that you have a good eye for horses, a very good eye!” His voice lowered in a conspiratorial tone. “That horse was once owned by an older lady who rode it for a little while only on Sundays and not even every Sunday. He has perfect teeth and has only eaten the best hay. If you’re interested, I could make you a great deal. In fact,” he whispered, “I could give you a better deal than any of my other customers.” Which stretched the truth a bit because as you know, he never had other customers. “You have to promise, though,” Moishe continued, “not to tell anyone because if they find out, they’ll all want the same deal, and I’ll go out of business.”
