I still Hope so..... and ....another mule story.

Good evening everyone. This chapter is sort of a duel purpose one. SO....kick back and relax while you read. You can take off your shoes if your feet are clean. ( :-D ) I'm taking orders for refreshments so let me know. My specialty is still Mint Julep though. Before I take off on this story I want to add an addendum to the last post. One thing I left out is a word heard commonly in our society and it has everything to do with hope, or the lack of hope. I know so very many people that can relate to this. It's call 'depression' and it's a debilitating problem to deal with. I know because I've fought it for a long time. If it weren't for my shrink I might not have made it this far. Let me hasten to add that loss of hope isn't the cause for ALL depression. Sometime one loses hope because of the depression. It is a common factor though and they go hand in hand with other. OK...on to something else. Next chapter will start on the next word in this short series. I had an interesting conversation not long ago and had a request for more stories about my old arch enemies, the mules. It's been many chapters since I mentioned them, so if you're not familiar with the chapters on them you should go back and catch up. This story is based in fact. My first cousin and best friend when growing up was Buddy. His nickname of course. Buddy and I were pretty much inseparable when young. Come to think of it, I'll have to post about Buddy later. An interesting character if I've ever known one. Anyway, I'm off of my subject. On this particular day Buddy and I were in the back of the farthest field, He with the Black mule and me with the Red one. It was a day in early June and the cotton I was plowing was about ten to twelve inches high. Buddy was plowing an area that had not long ago been cleared for planting, but was not yet ready. We called it 'new ground'. The day was beautiful but hot and we didn't want to be there, but the mules wanted to be there less than we. As I was trudging along behind the mule and feeling sorry for myself ( :-D ) I suddenly heard such a clatter that I looked up to see what was the matter. I heard that lyric somewhere lately. The problem was clear as soon as I looked up. The spectacle was Buddy running along behind the Black mule as fast as He could. It seems that it was a stampede. The Black mule had decided to go to the barn and had broken into a dead run in that direction. Buddy, it seems, had wrapped the reins around his wrist. I laugh now as I recall the sight. There went Buddy, taking strides about twenty feet long trying hard to keep up and not fall. All the time though, He was working just as hard to get the reins unwrapped from his wrist. While all this was happening the plow He was using (called a scratcher) was bouncing up and down and all over the place. As I stood watching this in amazement, mouth hanging open, it suddenly struck me as one of the funniest things I'd witnessed to that point in my young life. (about sixteen years of it at that point) As the pair of them went racing by all I could do was stand there and laugh my head off...along with other parts of my anatomy. I still think it was one of the funniest things ever. Even Buddy can chuckle about it now, but it took him a long time to get to that point. After tying my mule to a tree in the shade, I ran to join Buddy that was hurriedly striding along the dirt road. After catching up with him I immediately saw that keeping quiet was a good policy at that point in time. Which is what I did. I didn't think He could be more angry till we came into sight of the barn. There stood the old Black mule, patiently standing at the gate waiting for someone to let him in. I then realized that it was possible for Buddy to be more angry. As a matter of fact, I began to be afraid He would burst a blood vessel or blow his cork, or whatever was going to happen. When He finally began to speak He....well....I shan't repeat what was said, but believe me when I say it was a work of art and took great imagination. Thus were the life and times of Mike and Buddy in the days we look back upon and call "the good old days". .............And so it went..........