TOO HOT TO HANDLE

One Saturday afternoon a blacksmith in a small mountain town had just finished shaping a horseshoe on his forge. He had, of course, first heated it red hot, shaped it very carefully to fit the horse’s hoof, and then — with a pair of iron tongs — plunged the horseshoe quickly into a tub of water. He had just pulled it out and thrown it on a bench where it was continuing to cool when an old mountain boy came shambling into the blacksmith’s shop to look around. The boy walked over to the bench and picked up that horseshoe. It was