THE DANGER OF LYING IN BED
after Mark Twain Last year I travelled twenty thousand miles, almost always by rail-me year before, I travelled over twenty-five thousand miles, half bv sea and half by rail; and the year before that I travelled about ten thousand miles by rail. I suppose, if I added all the little journeys here and there, I may say I have travelled sixty thousand miles during the three years I have mentioned, and never had an accident. I would say to myself every morning, "Now, I have managed to keep safe so far, and so there is a greater chance that I shall have an accident this time. I will be wise,* and buy an accident ticket.** Then, when I have my accident, I shall be paid something." But I went to bed that night without one bone broken. I got tired of that, and started buying accident tickets that lasted a month. I said to myself, "One of them must bring me some money." But I was mistaken. I never got any money. I could read of railway accidents every day — the newspapers were full of them; but somehow they never happened to me. I found that I had spent a lot of money on accident tickets, and had nothing for it. I began to look around for somebody who had won money in this way. I found lots of people who had paid the money for a ticket, but not one who had ever had an accident or been paid anything. I stopped buying accident tickets, and made a study of the problem. The result was very surprising. THE DANGER WAS NOT IN TRAVELLING, BUT IN STAYING AT HOME.
Ex. 47. Use the following words and phrases in situations.
|
