AN Officer of the Government, with a great outfit¹ of mule²-waggons
loaded with balloons, kites, dynamite³ bombs, and electrical
apparatus⁴, halted in the midst of a desert, where there had been no
rain for ten years, and set up a camp.  After several months of
preparation and an expenditure⁵ of a million dollars all was in
readiness, and a series of tremendous explosions occurred on the
earth and in the sky.  This was followed by a great down-pour of
rain, which washed the unfortunate Officer of the Government and
the outfit off the face of creation and affected⁶ the agricultural
heart with joy too deep for utterance⁷.  A Newspaper Reporter who
had just arrived escaped by climbing a hill near by, and there he
found the Sole Survivor⁸ of the expedition - a mule-driver - down on
his knees behind a mesquite bush, praying with extreme fervour.

  "Oh, you can't stop it that way," said the Reporter.

  "My fellow-traveller to the bar of God," replied the Sole Survivor,
looking up over his shoulder, "your understanding is in darkness. 
I am not stopping this great blessing⁹; under Providence¹⁰, I am
bringing it."

  "That is a pretty good joke," said the Reporter, laughing as well
as he could in the strangling rain - "a mule driver's prayer
answered!"

  "Child of levity¹¹ and scoffing," replied the other; "you err¹² again,
misled by these humble¹³ habiliments.  I am the Rev¹⁴. Ezekiel Thrifft,
a minister of the gospel, now in the service of the great
manufacturing firm of Skinn & Sheer.  They make balloons, kites,
dynamite bombs, and electrical apparatus."

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