Readings: Horse Crazy
“Sam loved horses first and nothing else a close second. All day he thought of them, and talked about them if he came across an interested listener. But not by the domestic fireside where the topic was taboo. In fact, for the sake of peace at home, Sam soft-pedaled his talk, kept his thoughts to himself, and finally gave up going to the races except on Saturdays and Sundays.
“One day, when he was going through a department store, a salesman at the hat counter said to him, ‘Thinking of buying a hat, mister? We have a new shipment in. The latest styles.’
“Sam looked at the young fellow a moment in a dull sort of way, as if he hadn’t understood what had been said. Then he took of his soiled and battered hat and glanced at it. ‘No, I wasn’t thinking of buying a hat,’ he answered. ‘I was thinking of buying a horse.'” — From “Horse Crazy,” by Jesse Lilienthal
