Cold Winter

In mid-October, the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new chief whether the coming winter would be cold or mild. Since the chief had grown up in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he had absolutely no clue what the winter would be like.

The chief didn’t want to appear foolish, so he told the tribe that the signs were mixed and that they should collect extra firewood so they would be prepared.

After giving it some thought, though, the chief realized that it wouldn’t hurt to make use of modern technology. So, he put in a call to the local weather bureau and asked, “Is the coming winter going to be cold?”

“Based on what we’re seeing here, it looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the weather bureau again. “Does it still look like it’s going to be a very cold winter?”

“Oh, yes,” the meteorologist replied. “In fact, it looks it’s going to be a bitterly cold winter.”

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later the chief called the weather bureau again. “Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?”

“Absolutely,” the meteorologist replied. “It’s looking more and more like this will be one of the coldest winters ever!”

“How can you be so sure?” the chief asked. The weatherman replied, “The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy!”