How to Choose a Good Worker

4.6

Mr. Briggs and his wife lived in a house with a beautiful fruit garden around it. They loved their garden very much.

One day Mr. Briggs said to his wife, “It is spring now. There is much work in the garden, but I have no time to work. I must get a man to help me.”

“That’s right,” answered his wife. “You must get a good worker for our garden. The man who worked in our garden last spring liked to sit under the apple-trees. Do you remember that man?”

“Oh, yes, I remember that man very well, but now I know better how to choose my workers.”

Next day when Mr. Briggs and his wife were in their garden, two men came up to them. They were garden workers.

Mr. Briggs talked to them and said to one of them, “I think you will be a good worker. You may come tomorrow and begin your work.”

The two men went away.

“Why do you choose that man?” asked his wife. “I like the other man better. He has such a nice face.”

“My dear,” answered Mr. Briggs, “I like his face too, but if we want to get a good worker for our garden, we must not look at his face but at his trousers. The knees of the trousers of the man with a nice face are clean. The knees of the trousers of the other man are all dirty, so I know that he has worked much in the garden.”