Next year the sky-farmer came again. He had lost nothing, for no one would deal with him, on his terms, the year before; and to hear how heartlessly he'd jeer and jibe them that had the sore hearts in their bosoms, and calculate up for them how much they had lost, and then he'd say, he supposed they would'nt refuse a good offer another time. Well, I asked him was he going to make me a good offer, and he said he would'nt care if he did, and he offered as much as would hardly pay the rent, letting alone seed and labour. 'Why,' said I, 'you'll give as much as you offered last year.' 'Not I indeed,' said he; 'I bought experience instead of corn last year, and you paid for it;' and he laughed, and shook himself with glee, and chuckled, and jingled the guineas in his pockets, until I was hardly able to keep from knocking him down. Well, I higgled and bargained, and tried to raise him, but not another penny would he give; and at last he said that he was going away in the morning, and so I might take it or leave it, as I liked--he would'nt force his money on any man, not he. 'Delays are dangerous,' thought I; and, though it was a certain loss, I agreed. A finer season than that, never came from the heavens. The factor came to see the crops, and such crops as they were! Several others had done like me; and if he laughed at us the year before, he laughed ten times more now. The year before he had lost nothing: this year he had made a fortune. He had laughed at our losses before, but he now laughed over his own gains. 'They may laugh who win.' If he had taken it quieter, he might have done the same thing again; but by acting as he did, he set every one against him, and he never after could buy up growing crops here. 'Mary, my darling,' said I, 'we're almost ruined, in the second year, by following old sayings. I'll never believe in them again.' 'Jemmy, dear,' said she, 'I have been thinking the matter over, and I believe it's not the sayings that are wrong, but the wrong use that's made of them; for if we had said them the other way, we'd have made money instead of losing it; and for the future we'll try to use the sense that God has given us, and the acquirements such as they are that He has enabled us to obtain, in directing us to the proper use and timely application of those proverbs that are really wise and useful when properly applied.' As it was the will of the Almighty, boys, that your dear mother should not have had her senses about her when departing, and it's likely that these are the last of her sensible words that I'll ever be able to tell you, I'd have you take them, and think upon them as if they were her last addressed to you, and let neither proverbs, however apparently wise in themselves, nor superstitious remarks, ever guide your actions or sway your conduct until you have applied to them the touchstone of your own common sense. May God bless and guide you, my darling boys; and now I have done with the world and its affairs."