By Harold Merton

A couple had two sons. They were twins.

One was a real optimist, while the other was exactly the opposite.

Unfortunately the father was a little cruel and liked to pull dirty tricks on the boys.

Like most kids, they wanted everything.

Their birthdays were coming up and a month or so before the date they both got on the parents case. “We want a pony for our birthday!” they chimed in unison.

They kept it up. Every time they got together with the parents it was “we want a pony!”

Unfortunately they lived in the city and a pony would not be very practical.

“We have no where to keep a pony boys!” the mother said.

“We could keep it in the garage!” said the optimistic twin while his brother remained silent.

“I don’t think the neighbors would like it very much if we had a smelly pony in the garage” said the father.

“WE WANT A PONY! they both exclaimed.

The father being a bit of a strange person decided to play a trick o the boys.

Come birthday morning he arranged with a local farmer to bring a couple loads of horse manure and dump them in the double garage. He had moved both cars and the lawn tractor out so there was plenty of room.

The farmer brought a good supply of the manure but couldn’t understand why the man wanted it in his garage. “It’s going to smell pretty bad in a couple of days being inside!” he said.

“No problem” said the man. “I want to spread it over may garden but I’ll do it at night so that the neighbors don’t know. They don’t like that sort of thing” he added.

The man spread the manure evenly about the garage. It was about three feet deep in some areas”.

When the boys woke up on their birthday morning they ran out looking for their presents.

“Birthday present is in the garage!” said the Dad.

The boys rushed through the house and straight into the garage. The father heard the door to the garage slam as they entered.

He sat back waiting.

In a minute or two the son who was not the optimist came back into the house tracking horse manure in on his shoes.

“You’re sick Dad!” said the boy. “We ask for a pony and you get us a garage full of horse s____!”

The father roared with laughter while he sat waiting for the other son to come back.

After half an hour he thought he better go into the garage and check because something must have happened to his son because he had been there so long.

As he opened the door to the garage there was his optimistic son digging with his hands in the manure and throwing it around like a dog digging a hole.

“What the heck do you think you’re doing!” said the father, obviously upset at the mess the boy was making.

Then the boy exclaimed “with all this horse manure there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

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