An industrious young shoemaker fell into the habit of spending much time in a saloon. One by one his customers began to desert him. When his wife remonstrated with him, he would carelessly reply: "Oh, I've just been down a little while playing pool." His little two-year-old boy caught the refrain, and would often ask: "Is you goin' down to play fool, papa?"
Smith tried in vain to correct this word. The child persisted in his own pronunciation, and, day by day, he accosted his father with the same question: "Has you been playin' fool?" This made a deep impression on the shoemaker, as he relized the falling-off of his customers, and the growing wants of his household. He resolved again and again to quit the pool-table, but weakly allowed the passion for play to hold him a long time.
Finally he found himself out of work, out of money, and out of flour. Sitting on his bench one afternoon, idle and despondent, he was heard to exclaim: "No work again today! What I'm to do, I don't know!"
