--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Unknown collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 27 number: 12 published: 1924-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Unknown, “The Optimist and Pessimist,” *Improvement Era 27, no. 12 (October 1924)*: 1107–1107." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera27012unse start_page: 1107 end_page: 1107 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1924-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27012unse publication_year: 1924 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1924, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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.