Displaced Fairytale

Man from Manhattan Loses Potato Crop

It was reported that a young potato farmer from Manhattan, in an attempt to raise the price of potatoes, reported to all the neighboring farmers that there was to be an early frost.  All the neighboring farmers were very grateful for the news and rushed out to cover their fields.  The next day, when the sun rose high in the sky, their potatoes cooked under the heat from the black tarps they had laid down to protect their crops from the frost.  When the farmers all arrived at the young man’s house, he swung open the door and said, “I fooled you.  I fooled you.”  The farmers all thought this was a very bad joke, indeed.  They warned the young man not to pronounce an early frost again, unless one was really coming.  The next week, the young man announced to all his neighbors there was to be an early frost, and promised he was telling the truth this time.  Since Manhattan is a small tight knight community, all the farmers believed him and covered their potato fields once again.  The next day, when the sun rose high in the sky, they went back over to the young farmer’s house and the boy only laughed at them.  A couple days later, the Farmer’s Almanac, which all the older potato farmers swore by, predicted the first major frost of the season; all the farmers got together and helped each other cover their fields with tarps to protect their crops from the frost.  The young man didn’t have a Farmer’s Almanac, and he called to the other farmers to ask why they were covering their fields when he hadn’t reported an early frost.  All the farmers ignored him.  The frost came on quick and hard the next morning. All the young farmer could do was watch the cold frost drop on his fields.  He was the only potato farmer in Manhattan this year to lose his entire crop to the frost.