The Optimist and Pessimist

The Optimist and Pessimist An optimist, with smiling face, A pessimist, with wrinkled frowns, Once, starting out to take a walk, Went on the road between the towns; And, as they lingered by the way, Observed the farmers making hay; And the optimist kept on smiling. "Now, if I had that job to do," The pessimist at once complained, "I'd do a little at a time And haul it in before it rained; For though the sky is clear, I'll say, The rain sure'l come an' spile th' hay!" And the optimist kept on smiling. They passed a field of sugar beets, And paused to see the thrifty rows In long green lines across the field Through which the irrigation flows. The pessimist again complains, — "What need of this? It often rains!" And the optimist kept on smiling. Then an alfalfa field they saw, All growing purple-flowered and fine, And in it fed a hundred head Of thrifty- growing Berkshire swine, The pessimist exclaimed, "O dear, What durned poor farmin' have we here!" And the optimist kept on smiling. Near by some poultry-keeper's homes A thousand fowls were in the fields. "Look there;" the pessimist remarks, "A place like this no profit yields: In poultry raisin' I've a mind That payin' fowls must be confined!" And the optimist kept on smiling. Just in the outskirts of the town A dozen goats fed by the way; And one — he was a pessimist With twisted horns and whiskers gray — And his one joy had ever been Expressed by always butting in. And here two pessimists got mixed Because they had opinions fixed — And the optimist kept on smiling. JOSEPH LONGKING TOWNSEND.