A Dog for Sale.

Manawatu Herald, 30 November 1893, Page 3

A Dog for Sale.

Silas Snell in the Bulletin tells the following :— 11 Want t' specklicafce in a dog, mate? " i The strange sundowner whistled the sorry sora-eyed, fly-bitten nondescript away from the neck of mutton banging in the " colonial " safe behind oar hut, and held him aloft by the remains of a tale. '•He's game, y' see." " What's be good for, anyhow ?*' : " Anythin.' I wouldn't sell him, j on'y I'm goin' up t' St. Arnand t' bury mother. Take him for n. quid. ; He'il run errands, steal moat an' i chickens, perform on a powder keg, I keeps flies off th' grubb, an' he's the best sheep an' cattle dog on th' roads 'tween here an' Brisbin. Say eighteen bob an' a drink fer two. If you'd seen that dog work sheep you wouldn't take him from me fer less than a fiver - you wouldn't have the heart to do it. He'll work ten thoiir sand throuugh a crack in a fence, an' you won't gather enough wool off th' palm's t' plug your ear with. Say fifteen Roberts an' I'll sling in a pedigree. See here, mate,- whisper, that pup there '11 cut a mob into squads an' drill 'em. He'll teach 'era t' form fours an' march into th' yards t' th' tune of • Th ole Bullock Dray !' Jake ken round every grasshopper in a forty-acre paddock into a jamtin. He'll draft an' keep tally. You won't be such a fool es t' say half a quid's too stiff fer a gifted animal like that. See him after cattle ! He'd yard a sunstruck scrubber into a bail, or lead 300 head of wild uns through a We3leyan picnic without spillin' th' milk. Eight bob; I said, an' it's a sin t 1 part with a dog thet's bin in th' family so long, but there ain't any help fer it f Eight bob fer a purebred cattle-dog an' a gifted linguist." 11 A what-er ?" " A linguist. Understands languages, yeh know. That humblelookin' dog ken work sheep in three languages — English, German, an 1 Welsh, an' he knows a little Chinese. You can have him for halfa-crown. No,*l don't think you're any mug — - mug, not at all. You see, he first learnt t' handle jumbucks with a Cockney ; then a German—Yarmoj)'Hairy — feller with one ear — bought him, an' he had t' pick up th' business in German. Then a fat new ohum Welshman paid a fat price fer him, an* taught him th' orders in Welsh. Be picked up th' Chinese as ho went along. Half-a-erown." < Phil, chipped in, after examining the canine pjwtigy. - '• WhyVdamh it all. man ! That's tho mongrel from Blackham's at Ball's Corner, that comes up here after our rations." Another man might have been discomfited by this revelation ; not so the weary wanderer. He scratched his chtdFieflectively for a moment; therr^tie' looked up,, radiently. •• ty-jMitojliti&p' he said. " Well, tell you what, mates. Give us a pipe of terbacker, an' I'll drown th' blankey, crimson, condemned ole hybrid."