Your ShelfYour Projects

A Contented Farmer

5%

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 27, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 26.

Read the full edition

A Contented Farmer.

Once upon a time, Frederick, King of Prussia, surnamed “Old Fritz,” took a ride, and espied an old farmer plowing his acre by the wayside, cheerfully singing his melody.
“You must be well off, old man,” said the King; “does this acre belong to you, which you so industriously labor?”
“No sir,” replied the farmer, who did not know that it was the King. “I am not so rich as that; I plow for wages.”
“How much do you get a day?” asked the King.
“Eight groschen,” said the farmer.
“This is not much,” replied the King; “can you get along with this?”
“Get along, and have something left.”
“How is that?”
The farmer smiled, and said:
“Well, if I must tell you, two groschen are for myself and wife; with two I pay my old debts; two I lend; and two I give for the Lord’s sake.”
“This is a mystery which I cannot solve,” replied the King.
“Then I will solve it for you,” said the farmer. “I have two old parents at home, who kept me when I was weak and needed help; I keep them; this is my debt toward which I pay two groschen a day. The third pair of groschen, which I lend away, I spend forthe children, that they may receive a Christian instruction; this will come handy to me and my wife when we get old. With the last two groschen I maintain two sick sisters whom I would not be compelled to keep; this I give for the Lord’s sake.”
The King, well pleased with this answer, said:
“Bravely spoken, old man! Now I will give you something to guess. Have you ever seen me before?”
“Never,” said the farmer.
“In less than five minutes you shall see me fifty times, and carry in your pocket fifty of my likenesses.”
“This is a riddle which I cannot unravel,” said the farmer.
“Then I will do it for you,” replied the King.
Thrusting his hand into his pocket, and counting him fifty new gold pieces into his hand, stamped with his royal likeness, he said to the astonished farmer, who knew not what was coming: “The coin is also genuine, for it also comes from our Lord God, and I am his steward.”