"What are you reading you little mischief maker?" Sheriff Daniels teasingly asked Cody noticing the boy kept reading the same line in his book over and over again.

"What's wrong with this picture Dad?" Cody wanted to know, "It says, and I quote, "The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many." He paused a breath then remarked, "Somehow Dad, that does not seem right to me."

"Come over here and sit on my lap Little Man," the Sheriff replied, "and I'll try to tell you in words you'll understand."

Cody climbed down off his chair at the reading desk. He bounced across the room to where Sheriff Daniels was seated in his favorite recliner and crawled up to where the Sheriff told him to go. He placed his arm around the back of the Sheriff's neck and looked him in the eye. He was all ears.

"Well," Sheriff Daniels began, "let's pretend you're the king and you have all the food in the kingdom."

Cody's sparkling blue eyes grew bigger. He liked that idea.

"Now, let's say all the people in your kingdom are starving," Sheriff Daniels added to his scenario, "would you feed them or let them go hungry?"

Cody half-grinned. "Let'em starve! At least I'll be fed!" he replied.

"So, you're telling me Little Man, you'd let all your subjects go hungry as long as you could eat?" Sheriff Daniels questioned him, "That's not very nice of you," he said gently tracing the length of Cody's nose with his forefinger.

"And it's awful selfish too!" the Sheriff told the boy, "But it shows you the needs of the one, namely you, are more important to you than your subjects needs are, the needs of the many."

"Uh-huh," Cody agreed with the Sheriff's assessment. "That's the way I see it Dad," he remarked.

"Oh you do, do you?" Sheriff Daniels wondered.

"Yes I do Dad," Cody replied matter-of-factly.

"Okay, now let's say you're in my kingdom and I am the ruler," Sheriff Daniels told Cody.

He caught an enjoyable whiff of something pleasant and said, "Boy, that fried chicken Beth's fixing out there in the kitchen sure is smelling good isn't it?"

"It's YUMMY! for my tummy!" Cody chimed in telling the Sheriff, "And I'm starving too! I haven't eaten all day!"

"I control the food in this castle," Sheriff Daniels reminded Cody, "and the needs of the one, me, outweigh the needs of the many, you. So all that fried chicken you smell cooking out there in the kitchen is all mine!"

Cody did not like the sound of what Sheriff Daniels was telling him. He looked hard at the Sheriff trying to figure out if he was being serious. He hoped he was not.

"Go on. Get down and go to your room!" Sheriff Daniels firmly instructed the boy to do.

Crestfallen, Cody hopped down off the Sheriff's lap. He could not believe he was being sent to his room without supper. He really was hungry. On the verge of tears, and with his book in his hand, Cody slowly started up the stairs leading to his room.

Sheriff Daniels allowed Cody to climb four steps then called him back to him. Cody turned around and walked back to where the Sheriff stood. His chin almost on the floor.

The Sheriff raised Cody's head by lifting the bottom of his chin with his fingers.

"And the moral of this story is?" he asked the boy wanting to see if Cody learned the lesson he was trying to teach him.

"The needs of the one do not outweigh the needs of the many," Cody responded. Then he said, "It is better to share what you have with others than be selfish and keep it all for yourself."

"Good boy!" Sheriff Daniels exclaimed mussing Cody's blond hair. "That's your ticket to dinner tonight. Now, go put your book away, wash your hands, and let's eat us some fried chicken!"

A big smile creased Cody's face. He placed his book on the shelf where it belonged then walked into the kitchen. There, he lathered his hands with soap at the sink, rinsed them off, and dried them on a paper towel Sheriff Daniels provided him with.

"Sure smells good in here!" Cody complimented Beth.

It was at that time Cody felt a firm swat on the seat of his jeans.

"Aren't you supposed to be sitting up at the table Little Man?" Sheriff Daniels asked him.

"Yes sir," Cody responded.

"Then get there!" the Sheriff broadly smiled back at him, saying, "And don't forget, in this house we say grace before we eat."