David's Straw Pile

     One beautiful, Michigan, summer's day, David and I decided to walk  down the road to Howard's barn. It was a big old barn that was on his eighty acre farm. He lived a couple miles North of there at his other farm and used this as a sheep barn with a large pasture for the flock. The barn had a hip roof, which  was common in those parts and was considered a basement barn. You could drive a tractor in one side and the door on the other side was a story above the ground.
    We were exploring the old barn when David noticed the door was open on the other side. He walked over to investigate and looked down. Much to his delight, he spotted a large pile of straw. "Come on! Let's jump down into it!"
     As always, David was the Leader. "Ok David. You go first."
      With a large smile on his face and a loud yell, he took a flying leap! Unfortunately, what had appeared to be a large pile of straw from above was in truth a large pile of hardened sheep manure that Howard had stacked while cleaning  out of the barn. When David landed, his right knee came up and bashed him in the nose causing it to bleed profusely. I think probably he broke it. He cried the whole entire half mile walk home. And once again, I sauntered off in search of another Leader.