Jupiter and the Sharecropper

Jupiter had a farm to rent. He sent Mercury to spread the word, and on the day he named, the people came to look it over. "The soil is poor," said one man. "The fields are full of stones," said another.

They haggled all morning. Then up stepped the boldest man in the crowd, though he was not the wisest. "I will pay you a bigger share of my crops than anyone here," he said. "But the weather must be mine. I will choose the heat and the cold. I will choose the wet and the dry." Jupiter agreed, and the deal was done.

So the man had rain when he called for rain and sun when he called for sun. His neighbors took what came. That autumn their barns were full and their vines hung heavy with grapes. His fields gave him almost nothing.

He tried again the next year. He changed the wind. He fussed over every cloud. Rain when he called for rain, sun when he called for sun. And again his neighbors filled their barns, while his stood bare.

He went to Jupiter with his head hanging down. "I was too bold," he said. "I am sorry." Jupiter forgave him, as a good master should. "Go home," he said. "And leave the weather to me."