The Boy Who Didn't Cry Wolf; H. Copeland

HELEN COPELAND Business and conservative elements in America have continually injured their own cause by shout ing, "Wolf!" too long and too often ... Private en terprise has conditioned the public to accept rather than rej ect statism. SYDNEY J. HARRIS A SHEPHERD BOY was tending his sheep as usual when a grasshopper lit on the end of his flute. He caught it in his hand and called out in a loud voice that was heard way down in the city, "Grasshopper!" All of the important people in town and even some who were not imMrs. Copeland is a freelance writer i1,'l Char lotte, North Carolina. portant rushed to the hillside where the boy was intensely ab sorbed in watching the green bug eat a blade of grass. When they saw it was only a small insect, they were annoyed. "What's the matter with you, Boy?" the mayor scolded. "Yelling bloody murder over a little grasshopper!" "But look at his sharp mandi284 THE FREEMAN May bles," the boy said. "He can really chew up grass." Nobody looked.

They sighed and went back down the hill. The boy caught several more grasshoppers the next day. He let them go and lay back in the soft grass to play his flute. But his ears were very acute, and he couldn't play well because of a faint annoy ing hum that took away the joy of hearing his own music. He turned over on his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows, his chin on his hands, frowning. Then, in the distance, he perceived the source of the hum, a loose gray cloud low over the horizon. Sud denly he was on his feet yelling, "Locusts, locusts!" at the top of his voice. The townspeople all rushed to the hillside. "Locusts!" the mayor exclaimed indignantly, red-faced and panting from the long uphill run. "I thought you said, 'Help us.' Don't you know we've never had locusts in this area? That's just a thundercloud. Not afraid of a little rain, are you, Boy?" "But, Sir, I can hear them. It's a huge swarm of grasshoppers out there." He pointed with his flute.

The mayor, the members of the city council, and the townspeople all looked at the dark horizon. The mayor wagged his shaggy head and snipped a grasshopper off his sleeve. "There, there," he said. "I can see this job is getting you down. You're lonesome. Next week come into my office and we'll see about getting you a position that will suit your temperament." He smiled at the shepherd boy and his big hand squeezed the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry about grasshoppers, Boy. Think of it this way. Grasshoppers can be a bene fit. They can fatten up the par tridges which means more meat in the freezers. Always think posi tively; and don't call again, unless you see a wolf." ~ The boy never saw a wolf, but the next day there came a grea t cloud of grasshoppers to the land. They neatly clipped the green grass with their sharp little man dibles till there was none left and the sheep, baaing pitifully, strag gled away. The boy then came into town, which, like the country, was overrun with locusts. The mayor with a severe case of laryngitis had gone to bed, but the members of the city council carped at the boy.

"Why didn't you tell us ? We could have seeded the sky with insecti cide !" "I did tell you!" the boy pro tested. But they turned their backs on him and he felt angry and con fused. But he was no more miser able than anyone else. Everyone was hungry and the old joke about the lazy grasshopper wasn't funny any more. + of ALL CIVILIZED societies of men have possessed inherent concep tions of human dignity and social justice. These intrinsic human values and desires, rather than the transitory governments that have attempted to articulate and formalize them, have provided the basis for social progress and the advancement of civilization. Western civilization has been founded on two essential princi ples of human association. The first principle recognizes that men are entitled without reservation to the rewards of their legitimate efforts and to jurisdiction over property they have justly acquired.