Mr. Gray travelled a lot on business. He sold machines of various kinds to fanners. It was not really a very exciting job, but Mr. Gray had always been interested in farming, and he was quite satisfied with his life.
He had a big car, and usually enjoyed driving it long distances, but he Was quite satisfied to go by train sometimes too, especially when the-weather
was bad. He was a little frightened of driving in rain or snow, and it was less tiring to [bad word] in a train and look out of the window without being worried about how one was going to get to the next place.
One of Mr. Gray's problems was often where to stay when he reached some small place in the country. He did not expect [bad word] and wonderful food, but he found it annoying when he was given a cold room, and there was no water or good food after a long and tiring day.
Late one winter evening, Mr. Gray arrived at a small railway station. The journey by train that day had not been at all interesting, and Mr. Gray was cold and tired and hungry. He was looking forward to a simple but satisfying meal by a brightly burning fire, and then a hot bath [bad word] bed.
While he was walking to the taxi rank, he said to a local man who was also walking there, «As this is my first visit to this part of the country and I was in too much of a hurry to find out about hotels before I left home, I would very much like to know how many you have here.»
The local man answered, «We have two.»
«And which of the two would you advise me to go to?» Mr. Gray asked then.
The local man scratched his head for a few moments and then answered, «Well, it's like this: whichever one you go to, you'll be sorry you didn't go to the other.»