''Abe'' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories - University of Macau Library

Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure 209will say, though, that I practiced more law than I ever got paid for."A fellow who lived just out of town, on the bank of a large marsh,conceived a big idea in the money-making line. He took it to a prominentmerchant, and began to develop his plans and specifications. 'There are atleast ten million frogs in that marsh near me, an' I'll just arrest a couple ofcarloads of them and hand them over to you. You can send them to the bigcities and make lots of money for both of us. Frogs' legs are great delicaciesin the big towns, an' not very plentiful. It won't take me more'n two or threedays to pick 'em. They make so much noise my family can't sleep, and bythis deal I'll get rid of a nuisance and gather in some cash.'"The merchant agreed to the proposition, promised the fellow he would payhim well for the two carloads. Two days passed, then three, and finally twoweeks were gone before the fellow showed up again, carrying a smallbasket. He looked weary and 'done up,' and he wasn't talkative a bit. Hethrew the basket on the counter with the remark, 'There's your frogs.'"'You haven't two carloads in that basket, have you?' inquired the merchant."'No,' was the reply, 'and there ain't no two carloads in all this blastedworld.'"'I thought you said there were at least ten millions of 'em in that marshnear you, according to the noise they made,' observed the merchant. 'Yourpeople couldn't sleep because of 'em.'"'Well,' said the fellow, 'accordin' to the noise they made, there was, Ithought, a hundred million of 'em, but when I had waded and swum thatthere marsh day and night fer two blessed weeks, I couldn't harvest but six.There's two or three left yet, an' the marsh is as noisy as it uster be. Wehaven't catched up on any of our lost sleep yet. Now, you can have thesehere six, an' I won't charge you a cent fer 'em.'"You can see by this little yarn," remarked the President, "that theseboisterous people make too much noise in proportion to their numbers."