Ted Rice spent all of his spare time sleeping or fishing, and most of his fishing time was spent sleeping.. (on the weekends and Holidays Mr. Rice was always Johnny on the spot and jumped out of bed at the crack of noon.)

  His favorite fishing spot was a little stream that was half way between Lubec and Whiting. 

   One warm summer day he was sitting on the river bank, about half awake and half asleep, when a Massachusetts man rode up on a rented horse and asked Mr. Rice, 
   “Is the water shallow enough here so I can ride this horse on across? I’ve been riding this nag for about two hours and I never knew anything full of hay and water could be so hard.”

  Mr. Rice partially awoke from his dozing and looked up at the horseman. The rider would tip the scales pretty close to the three hundred and fifty pound mark and the poor horse was getting sway-backed just carrying the weight around.

   “Aayah,” Mr. Rice answered the question, “you can ride across here.”

   The rider turned his horse toward the river and slowly rode down the bank. The poor horse buckled under the weight but held his feet as he walked off into the water. About ten feet from shore the horse and rider disappeared from view. The man and animal struggled as a pair to get turned around and head back to where Mr. Rice was sitting on the bank watching them.

   There are times when some men get mad and the visitor from Massachusetts had passed that stage several minutes ago. He was so disturbed his face was glowing red. When he had the horse safely back on solid ground he dismounted and approached Mr. Rice.

   “I thought you said it was safe to cross here,” he yelled at the top of his angry voice. “Didn’t you realize the horse and I could have drowned?”

   “Nope, I didn’t think that at all,” Mr. Rice answered as he gathered up his fish and headed for home. “I was sure you could make it safely across.”
 

“Whatever gave you that idea?” the visitor asked losing some of his madness.     “Well,” Mr. Rice answered, “about ten minutes ago I saw a duck with three inch legs jump into the river and walk on across and I thought your horse could do it too.”