The Best Drink

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 4, 1903

ON a pleasant day in the early fall A stranger rode into the town, And, stopping his horse in the public square, Glanced this way and that with a frown; For the place that he sought he could not find (Drinkshops had been closed that year). So he called to a lad who passed that way And said to him, “Laddie, come here. “Here’s a copper for you to show the way To the best drinking-place you know.” “All right,” he answered,—a quick-witted youth,— “Just turn up that street, sir, and go Till you come to another upon your right, Then turn into that, and keep on Till you come to another, turn right again. And you’ll see it quite plainly,” said to John.

So, thanking the lad, the stranger rode off, And John, with a hop, skip, and jump, After the stranger he went in a trice, Brought up at the old town pump. “Here you are, sir,” said John, with a good-natured smile; “It’s the ‘best drinking-place’ to be found. Take a drink, sir; it’s free, and you’re welcome, I’m sure. And it’s good for your health, I’ll be bound!”.

’The man took the joke in a good-natured way, And drank of the water so clear, Then said, “’Tis an excellent drink, I am sure; As good as I’ve had for a year.” So saying he tossed the bright lad a new coin, “The lesson is worth that to me. And if you keep playing your temperance joke, ’Twill make the world better,” said he. —Selected.