What Happened To Charles
A farm horse named Charles was led to town one day by his owner, to be shod. He would have been shod and brought back home without incident if it hadn’t been for Eva, a duck, who was always hanging about the kitchen door of the farmhouse, eavesdropping, and never got anything quite right. Her farm-mates said of her that she had two mouths but only one ear.
On the day that Charles was led away to the smithy, Eva went quacking about the farm, excitedly telling the other animals that Charles had been taken to town to be shot.
“They’re executing an innocent horse!” cried Eva. “He’s a hero! He’s a martyr! He died to make us free!” “He was the greatest horse in the world,” sobbed a sentimental hen.
“He just seemed like old Charley to me,” said a realistic cow. “Let’s not get into a moony mood.” “He was wonderful!” cried a gullible goose.
“What did he ever do?” asked a goat.
Eva, who was as inventive as she was inaccurate, turned on her lively imagination. “It was butchers who led him off to be shot!” she shrieked. “They would have cut our throats while we slept if it hadn’t been for Charles!”
“I didn’t see any butchers, and I can see a burnt-out firefly on a moonless night,” said a barn owl. “I didn’t hear any butchers, and I can hear a mouse walk across moss.”
“We must build a memorial to Charles the Great, who saved our lives,” quacked Eva. And all the birds and beasts in the barnyard except the wise owl, the skeptical goat, and the realistic cow set about building a memorial.
Just then the farmer appeared in the lane, leading Charles, whose new shoes glinted in the sunlight.
It was lucky that Charles was not alone, for the memorial-builders might have set upon him with clubs and stones for replacing their hero with just plain old Charley. It was lucky, too, that they could not reach the barn owl, who quickly perched upon the weathervane of the barn, for none is so exasperating as he who is right.
The sentimental hen and the gullible goose were the ones who finally called attention to the true culprit—Eva, the one-eared duck with two mouths. The others set upon her and tarred and unfeathered her, for none is more unpopular than the bearer of sad tidings that turn out to be false.
MORAL: Get it right or let it alone. The conclusion you jump to may be your own.