"There he goes in the ruts again," said the husky road-worker.
"Why is it, I'd like to know, that every one wants to run in the
same identical track when they've got the whole wide road before
'em?"
"That's what has long puzzled me, too," I said. "Why WILL people
continue to run in ruts?"
"It don't seem to do no good to put up signs," said the
road-worker.
"Very little indeed," said I. "The fact is, people have got to be
bumped out of the ruts they get into."
"You're right," said he enthusiastically, and his voice dropped
into the tone of one speaking to a member of the inner guild. "I
know how to get 'em."
"How?" I asked in an equally mysterious voice.
"I put a stone or two in the ruts!"
"Do you?" I exclaimed. "I've done that very thing myself--many a
time! Just place a good hard tru--I mean stone, with a bit of
common dust sprinkled over it, in the middle of the rut, and
they'll look out for THAT rut for some time to come."
"Ain't it gorgeous," said the husky road-worker, chuckling
joyfully, "to see 'em bump?"
"It is," said I--"gorgeous."
After that, shovelling part of the time in a leisurely way, and
part of the time responding to the urgent request of the signs by
the roadside (it pays to advertise!), the husky road-worker and I
discussed many great and important subjects, all, however,
curiously related to roads.
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