If Horace wanted to continue doing something beneficial there, he forgot the golden plan-b rule. He could’ve taken a knife and a piece of wood to carve a spare helve for his axe while waiting.In Finland there’s a very old say (free translation): “Good afternoon! A helve!” This is kind of a running gag, when visitor arrives to someone’s house and householder wants to save his/her time. Before visitor says anything, the host says those words out loud. Probably originally said, when a host carved a spare helve for his axe in those circumstances.
If Horace wanted to continue doing something beneficial there, he forgot the golden plan-b rule. He could’ve taken a knife and a piece of wood to carve a spare helve for his axe while waiting.In Finland there’s a very old say (free translation): “Good afternoon! A helve!” This is kind of a running gag, when visitor arrives to someone’s house and householder wants to save his/her time. Before visitor says anything, the host says those words out loud. Probably originally said, when a host carved a spare helve for his axe in those circumstances.