Article December 9, 1922 ISSUE

The Song on the Ash-Cart

JOHN RANDALL DUNN

It was a bright morning in April, and the first song sparrow was busily practicing his cheery spring madrigal. Suddenly, not from the trees in the parkway, but from a near-by alley, came another tuneful pipe. This time the note was unmistakably the care-free whistle of one of the sons of men. The writer instinctively sought out the source of this latest melody, but before he found it the whistle had changed to a happy song; and a moment afterwards from the alley slowly came an ash-cart, and perched thereupon, clothes gray with ash-dust, was the singer! Singing on an ash-cart! One, of course, expected the newly arrived feathered choristers, swinging on a swaying limb, or basking in the bright sunshine, to voice their joyousness; but—singing on an ash-cart!

As the writer pondered this picture, two distinct conclusions were speedily reached: first, that here must be an ash-man who satisfied both his company and the company's patrons; and secondly, that he would not, in all probability, be driving that ash-cart very long. An employee who performs a disagreeable task cheerily is an asset to any employee and a positive joy to his customers. And the one who can "carry on" with a song in his heart or on his lips, when all about him is the evidence of material unloveliness, is surely destined inevitably to be lifted to higher labor.

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The Sunday School
December 9, 1922
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