A sailor was caught AWOL as he tried to sneak on board his ship at 3 am. The
chief petty officer spied him and ordered the sailor to stop. He commanded,
“Take this broom and sweep every link on this anchor chain by morning or
it’s the brig for you!”
The sailor quickly picked up the broom and started to sweep the chain.
Just then, a tern landed on the broom handle. The sailor yelled at the bird
to leave, but it didn’t. The lad grabbed hold of the tern on the handle,
giving the bird a toss.
The bird left, only to return and land once again on the broom handle. The
sailor went through the same routine, with the same result.
For three hours he couldn’t get any cleaning done because he could only
sweep at the chain once or twice before the silly bird came back.
When morning came, so did the chief petty officer, to check up on his
wayward sailor.
“What on earth have you been doing all night? This chain is no cleaner than
when you started! What have you to say for yourself, sailor?” barked the
chief.
“Honest, chief,” came the reply, “I tossed a tern all night and couldn’t
sweep a link!”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”