A SERVANTS CHARACTER.

Kumara Times, Issue 1132, 15 May 1880, Page 3

A SERVANTS CHARACTER.

Among a lot of good things told at a fecent gathering of friends at a clubdinner was the following, which I think worth putting in print; In a certain town . resides a lawyer, well to do in worldly matters, and a free liver. Oiice upon a time he had a coachman who, he was fearful, was in the habit •of carrying away measures of oats and •com, and selling them, and appropriating the proceeds to his own use. He bore with the servant until he had made sure his suspicions were founded upon fact, and then he gave him his discharge. The man found no fault, nor did he make complaint, but he hoped the lawyer would give him a recommendation but it was refused, peremptorily, and the man went away without it.

A few weeks thereafter our lawyer received a letter from a gentleman, asking for information concerning the character •of the dismissed coachman. The lawyer at once wrote back : “He is sober and attentive, and I have found him willing and accommodating. Ho is a good coachman ; a good groom, and understands thoroughly the proper cai’e of horses. But, with all this, he is not strictly honest. lam very sure he cheated me on many occasions.”

A month later that same lawyer, on a visit to town, met his aforetime servant. The fellow greeted him cordially, and even jubilantly, and thanked him for the good character he had given him in his letter. The lawyer was surprised. “ Why, bless me !” he cried, “ I wrote to the gentleman that you had cheated me repeatedly!” “ Aye, sir, but you wrote that I was sober, and attentive, and willing, and that I was a grand coachman, and good to horses. Well, sir, the gentleman said if I was all that, I would answer for him ; and as for the cheating part, he didn’t take any stock in it; for he said he knew you, arid he didn’t believe the very old scratch himself could cheat you. ”