Hot Day in August

Poor Mountain Father was sitting at his breakfast table with sweat dripping off his nose into his cereal bowl. It was the middle of August and it was very hot.

“Boy it is hot today!” he exclaimed, wiping his forehead off with a corner of his t-shirt.

“Yes,” said Poor Mountain Brother. “It is pretty hot!”

“Let’s do something to cool us down,” said Poor Mountain Mother.

“Sure,” said Poor Mountain Father. “Let’s go fishing!”

Everyone quickly said that they wanted to go fishing except for Poor Mountain Sister.

“How is fishing going to cool us down?” she asked. “Now swimming yes but not fishing!”

“Well,” said Poor Mountain Father. “I was thinking of renting a boat.”

“Oh,” said Poor Mountain Sister. “Now, that sounds better. The wind from the lake will cool us off.”

“Yes,” said Poor Mountain Brother, even more excited. “It would!”

Poor Mountain Mother packed up some sandwiches and some drinks and then the Poor Mountain Family were off on their fishing adventure. However, they were surprised at how packed the marina was when they got there.

“We aren’t going to be able to rent a boat!” exclaimed Poor Mountain Sister, who was a bit disappointed. “There are so many people here. They must have had the same idea as we did!”

“It’ll be okay,” said Poor Mountain Father, doubting every word he just uttered but not wanting to upset his family.

The Poor Mountain Family waited in line for almost half an hour. When they finally got to speak with the clerk, they were very disappointed to hear that no boats were available. The clerk took one look at the disappointed faces in front of him and decided to give the Poor Mountain Family a break. He had an old house boat that wasn’t water ready but it did have air conditioning on it.

“You can’t take the house boat out onto the lake,” said the clerk. “But you can sit inside of it and enjoy the air conditioning.”

“This is perfect!” exclaimed Poor Mountain Father, sitting inside the old house boat, eating one of Poor Mountain Mother’s sandwiches she had brought and enjoying the cool air from the air conditioner.

“It sure was nice of that clerk,” said Poor Mountain Mother.

“Yes,” said Poor Mountain Brother. “It sure was!”

“At least we are nice and cool now,” said Poor Mountain Sister.

“And I love cost,” said Poor Mountain Father. “Free!”