The Farmer and the Cowman should be Friends;

Sam and Ursula came into a star-gazing clearing about midday, and found a group of head-stones making up a small cemetery. Inscribed on the third one from the end (toppled over in disrepair,) was the curious Eulogy, "Here lies McScrooge's Eben-ezer. He wasn't as generous as he OUGHTA!" Ursula killed two birds with one respectable stone, by removing a big rock left right in the middle of his grave and sitting on it. Having been looking over her as always, Sam observed that there had been an oilskin underneath the stone; even Yogi Bera knew that "You can observe a LOT by watching!" Sam picked it up from where it had been, and unfolded it carefully. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth;" he read aloud. "...and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. Proverbs 11:24." He paused. "This feller had soooo many Proverbs he numbered the numbers," he marveled. "Wonder if he got a big head about it," Ursula returned, "If it was McScrooge himself here, he obviously wasn't too good at takin' his own advice... witness his Eulogy!" "There's commentary here," Sam responded. "If a ruler (Rancher type,) uses efficiency and enlightened profitable self interest to obtain the abstract imprint of Lincoln on his otherwise abstract thumb, that very Day he will find that the elementary case of sowing agricultural product will fail him." Sam paused to breathe, and mulled it over in his head. Ursula spoke with confidence, "Whoever it was, this McScrooge feller must have been a rancher," she shared. "And he must have hit the other feller in the head with a BOOK," Sam agreed. "Just look at all them four-bit words he added in unnecessarily." On this subject Ursula was able to pontificate at length. "Lawyers and such throw extra words in just so you can ask yourself all manner of questions about what it would mean if you took them back out." Sam's interest was aroused by her discussion, and he could not hide his curiosity. "Show me what you mean," he implored. "Well, look at the word 'profitable.' If something is for your self interest, it's SUPPOSED to be DEFINED as profitable to YOU. But by adding it, the author has shared with you his own philosophical question about 'What if self-interest was somehow not profitable?' probably meaning he thinks that the word 'profitable' is a homophone or a homonym." "These 'homo-things,' What's the difference between them?" Sam asked honestly. Ursula was patient, but wanting to return to her pedagogic discourse. "In the dictionary, not much," she explained. "'-phone' is Latin for how it's pronounced, and '-nym' is Latin for what it's called." "Like a pseudonym?" Sam asked, supplying feedback. "EXACTLY like that," Ursula assured him.

"He seems a little _generous_ with his questions," was Sam's evaluation. "I'm glad most PROFOUND books aren't like that." This piqued Ursula's interest, and wanting to know more about him anyway, she asked "Give me a 'for instance.'" Sam thought HARD. He had been sharing his real feelings, and hadn't planned to be put on the spot that way. "I don't know," he admitted. "I was thinking about things like the Pledge of Allegiance, the National Anthem, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg address," he elaborated. "But take _The_Little_Prince_ for instance. It's not NEARLY as ostentatious in it's teaching as _The_Prince_!" "Juicier subject matter too," Ursula agreed.

"What else does this feller with the numbered numbered Proverbs say?" she continued. Sam returned to the original document and picked up where he had left off. "He (I guess he's talking about the sower again,) may essay to break God's curse by contemplating 'gleaning,' as taught under the Mosaic dispensation." He struggled to keep up with her interest without over-taxing his intellect as he read on with pedestrian meter. ""Despite failing 100% efficiency on the first pass of harvesting, the Jews were only allowed ONE pass at gleaning. Everything left after THAT was for widder ladies and orphans'... that's all she wrote" Sam finished. "What do you glean from that Sam?" Ursula asked to start the arbitration of their agreement on the subject matter. "First pass I glean that this feller doing the writing thought he could get 100% of the harvest on first pass; that kinda attitude I wouldn't want LEMONADE he made, for fear it'd be too bitter from squeezing on the skin! What do YOU get?" Ursula made a practice of observing the reflexive case as much as possible, but here she could not resist. "That's your HARVEST Sam, not your GLEANING," she laughed. He tried again, but immediately came back with "Am I supposed to glean from what he said all over again, or from what I said about what he said?" Ursula knew he wasn't trying to be smart, and encouraged him appropriately. "Your first clue, Sherlock, is the 'all over again.'" She left her discussion of what it meant to be an autodidact for another day. "I guess the next thing I get is that this feller's God wasn't too generous to his widder ladies and orphans." Ursula pondered on this silently for a while. "I guess we better quit trying to be farmers and go back to being 5ts," she finally concluded. "Let's put the oil skin back under the rock so no one will know we read it." Sam could not agree more. "Maybe some farmer will figure it out later," he assented. "It's not big enough for a slicker."