BRIDGES

...don't cross 'em till you come to them....!!!

Once there was a little king who wanted to attack

another King who lived in a country the other side of a mile wide river.

He assembled an army and marched off.  Half way to the river he sent out scouts who reported back that the bridge was down.

He had a meeting with his generals that lasted well into the night. (Fueled with food drink and a few merry maids) It was finally decided to build some boats.

This was not an easy task.  It would take a lot of people to cut down trees, drag them out of the forest, split into planks and assemble them into boats.  Keeping a large work force housed and fed was a logistical nightmare.

They were delayed three months.  When they reached the river the bridge was down, but the mile wide river was now down to a hundred yards.

The water was too shallow for the boats so they decided to wait for the river to freeze over in the winter.

Trouble was the horses couldn't walk on ice.  The wagons slid around.  The winter turned ferocious and they

hunkered down to wait it out. 

When the weather warmed they tried again but they had waited too long.  The ice was thin and they broke thru.

A third of the force was on one side of the river having got across.  A third was on the other side and rest on the plain above the river channel.

Of course they had a meeting to decide how to proceed. While they were talking a flash flood occurred up stream. 
A massive wall of water came roaring down the river bed
and like the little spider washed out of the drain spout
everything soldiers, horses and wagons were washed out to sea

The remaining army returned to their own country.  The next year the kings son assembled an army, proceeded to the bridge which they repaired, crossed and conquered

the king.

The new king fell for the old kings daughter.  They married.  Peace was made and all lived happily ever after, till the new king was caught with an underage girl.


....but that's another story...!!!