Way back in the old days, there was a mule named Crenshaw. Now Crenshaw was a smart mule, who learned that acting stupid was a lot more profitable than showing his intelligence. It was almost cane grinding time and Crenshaw knew it because of the huge piles of sugar cane being stacked beside the grinder. When grinding time came around, he would be forced to walk around and around the grinder. The farmer would put a yoke on him and attach it to a pole that turned the grinder. He would have to circle a big concrete vat that caught all the cane juice when it came gushing out of a pipe. He considered this a great waste of energy. Who wants to walk all day and get nowhere?
Finally the time had come. Farmer Stewart came to get him, talking sweet and wielding a carrot. Crenshaw sat down. He ate the carrot, but wouldn’t get up. Farmer Stewart was getting madder and madder. He needed to get all of the cane ground so he could boil it down into syrup the next day. So, he went back to the house, got an apple, another carrot, and a sugar cube, and returned to the mule pen. “Oboy!” thought Crenshaw. He ate the apple and got up. Farmer Stewart led him to the grinder and gave him the carrot. He ate the carrot and sat down. “Come on Crenshaw, it’s almost noon. We got to get this cane ready for tomorrow,” urged the farmer. Crenshaw gave him a blank look. So Farmer Stewart gave him his last bribe - the sugar cube. Crenshaw loved sugar cubes, so he stood up and allowed himself to be yoked. Then, he began the inevitable task of grinding cane. About a half hour later, he stopped, looked around, and began to back up. “Oh no!” moaned the farmer. So he went back inside and got some more treats. Crenshaw ate another carrot, but continued to back up, instead of moving forward. “Looka here. You go this way, not backwards,” admonished Farmer Stewart as he held up the yoke and moved around the grinder. Crenshaw followed him as if he finally understood. So the farmer continued around and around the vat, making sure that Crenshaw understood. Then he yoked the mule and fed him another apple. Crenshaw pulled for awhile, then sat down in the cool sand.
“Get up, dern it!” yelled Farmer Stewart. So Crenshaw got up, ate another sugar cube that was offered, then began to back up again. “This way, you idiot!” hollered the irate man. He snatched the yoke off of Crenshaw, held it, and began to walk around the grinding vat. After a little while, Crenshaw got up and began to follow him. This went on until nightfall, when Farmer Stewart finished off the last of the sugar cane.
He led Crenshaw back to the mule pen, went home, and fell asleep from exhaustion.
The next morning, his wife woke him up and fed him a huge breakfast. “You fell asleep before supper. You must have had a hard day,” she said consolingly.
“I spent half of it feeding Crenshaw and the other half showing him how to grind sugar cane,” he complained. “Dumbest mule I ever saw!”
