Get the Habit of Being Ready

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Mansfield, Missouri

Did the first frost catch you unready? It would be quite unusual if it didn’t because I never knew anyone to be ready for cold weather, in the fall, or for the first warm spell in the spring. It is like choosing the right time to be ill or an out-of-the-way place for a boil—it simply isn’t done!

I know a man who had a little patch of corn. He was not quite ready to cut it and besides he said, “it is just a little green.” He let it wait until the frost struck it and now he says it is too dry and not worth cutting. The frost saved him a lot of hard work.

This man’s disposition reminds me of that of a renter we once had who was unable to plow the corn in all summer. Before it rained the ground was so hard he could not keep the plow in, and besides if it did not rain there would be no corn anyway and he believed it was going to be a dry season. When it did rain it was too wet to plow and never was he ready and able to catch that cornfield when the ground was right for plowing.

And that reminds me of the other renter who was always ready to take advantage of his opportunities. His horses would break into the cornfield at night, or were turned in (we never knew which), and in the fall, when The Man Of the Place wanted a share of what corn was left, he was told that the horses had eaten all his share.

These anecdotes are not intended as any reflection on renters. I could tell some in which the joke is on the other side if I had the space.

The tragedy of being unready is easy to find for, more often than not, success or failure turn upon just that one thing. There was a time, perhaps long ago, when you were not ready for examinations and failed to pass, then there was the time you were not ready to make that good investment because you had been spending carelessly. We can all remember many times when we were not ready. While being ready for and equal to whatever comes may be in some sense a natural qualification, it is a characteristic that may be cultivated, especially if we learn easily by experience.

It was interesting to see the way different persons showed their character after the first frost. One man considered that the frost had done his work for him and so relieved him of further effort. Others went along at their usual gait and saved their fodder in a damaged condition. They had done the best they could, let providence take the responsibility. Still others worked thru the moonlight nights and saved their feed in good condition in spite of the frost. They figured that it “was up to them” and no little thing like the first frost should spoil their calculations.

It does not so much matter what happens. It is what one does when it happens that really counts.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "Get the Habit of Being Ready." Missouri Ruralist (October  20, 1917): 13.  CLICK HERE to see this article as it originally appeared in the Missouri Ruralist.

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