Kentucky -- History; Roads -- United States; Wilderness Road
"Suppose a father had a little son whom he loved and indulged while
young, but growing up to be a youth, began to think of having some help
from him; and making up a small pack, he bid him carry it for him. The
boy cheerfully takes this pack up, following his father with it. The
father finding the boy willing and obedient, continues in this way; and
as the boy grows stronger, so the father makes the pack in proportion
larger; yet as long as the boy is able to carry the pack, he does so
without grumbling. At length, however, the boy having arrived at
manhood, while the father is making up the pack for him, in comes a
person of an evil disposition, and, learning who was to be the carrier
of the pack, advises the father to make it heavier, for surely the son
is able to carry a larger pack. The father, listening rather to the bad
adviser than consulting his own judgment and the feelings of tenderness,
follows the advice of the hard-hearted adviser, and makes up a heavy
load for his son to carry. The son, now grown up, examining the weight
of the load he is to carry, addresses the father in these words: 'Dear
Father, this pack is too heavy for me to carry, do pray lighten it; I
am willing to do what I can, but am unable to carry this load.' The
father's heart having by this time become hardened, and the bad adviser
calling to him, 'Whip him if he disobeys,' and he refusing to carry the
pack, the father orders his son to take up the pack and carry it off or
he will whip him, and already takes up a stick to beat him. 'So,' says
the son, 'am I to be served thus for not doing what I am unable to do?
Well, if entreaties avail nothing with you, Father, and it is to be
decided by blows, whether or not I am able to carry a pack so heavy,
then I have no other choice left me, but that of resisting your
unreasonable demand by my strength, and thus by striking each other
learn who is the strongest.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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