Page:Oscar Ameringer - Socialism; What It Is and How To Get It (1911).djvu/5



Once upon a time there lived in the Land of Stars and Stripes, a mighty hunter, by the name of Eagle-eye. This man could hit the left hind lege of a flying mosquito four hundred yards off. But, alas, he had no gun. Whereupon he hiked himself to "Old Man" Bateye, who was blind and lame, but who owned many guns. And Eagle-eye spake unto Bateye also: "Lord! I am a hunter without a: gun; wherefore the wife of my bosom is cleansing the soiled garment of your wife's, and my. children cry papers in the wilderness of Chicago, while my stomach is empty as the House of the Lord in summer time. Therefore I beseech thee, let me have one of your guns that I may follow my vocation, which is that of a hunter of quails; so that I, too, may eat, drink and be merry."

Then up spake Bateye and said: "Gladly will T lend you a gun, for I, too, crave hot birds, cold bottles and warm babies, but for the use of my capital (as guns are called in the lingo of the chosen few'), thou must give unto me four quails out of every five you shoot."

This looked fair and reasonable to the hunter, for he was sorely pressed and up a stump, from which he could not descend. Therefore he accepted the terms of Bateye and fetched to him four