No Whistling!

     There was once a happy farmer who had had some rough times but had weathered them, perhaps not financially well, but in spirit.  He lived in the barn (he didn't have a farmhouse, that hadn't made it) and the Spartan above him in the hayloft said, "No whistling!"
     "No whistling?"  said the farmer, incredulous that anyone could want a life so devoid of fun.  "I'm enjoying life!  I'm happy!  What's wrong with you?"
     "My mother brought me up that life was meant to be boring and tawdry and stripped to the bare essentials, and I intend to live by that."
      "Well, with all due respect to your mother, I'm sure she was a fine lady in many ways, but I intend to live better than that," replied the farmer. 
      The farmer prayed to the Lord:  "The Spartan in the hayloft doesn't want me to whistle.  What shall I do?"
     "Nothing," said the Lord.  "In a few days, everyone will see that you are the best person in the world."
     "Thank you, Lord," replied the farmer, feeling much better.  He took a bath.  "I'll do my best," he said in a prayer.  "Don't you worry about me.  I'll find me a wife.  That's what I'll do."
     "How about building a house alongside finding a wife?"  said the Lord.  "Then you'll have somewhere to live."
     "Righty-ho," said the farmer.
     "Oh, no, no wife for you!"  said the Spartan in the hayloft.  "I like my life just fine the way it is.   And don't go to the expense of building a house!"

Continued tomorrow