SOME TALL YARNS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1662, 16 January 1917, Page 4

SOME TALL YARNS

“Lord, I seen things in Moonagoona,” said Bindle reminiscently, “that ’ud make yer ’air stand on end. There’s the Moonagoona linnet, big as nn eagle, and you ’ave to plug yer ears when it sings. Then there’s the Moonagoona beetle, wot’ll swallow a lamb f ole, and then sit up an’ beg for the mint-sauce. We got eels that big that yer wouldn’t believe it. We once caught a eel at Moonagoona, and it pulled and pulled so, that ’fore long we’d got the ’ole bloomin’ population on the end o’ the rope. We ’auled in miles of it, and’ presently we see coinin’ along the river a crowd o’ people; they was the in’abitants of Gumbacooe, the next town. They’d (•aught the other end o’ the eel, wot 'ad two 'ends, an’ we was a’-aulin of ’em as well as Mister Eel. Moomigoona’s the place to see things.” Bindle, by Herbert Jenkins.

They were in the rest camp on Anzac Beach, and the talk veered round to the best feed they had ever had. Bill finished the discussion by reliiting his experiences. He qualified his remarks by stilting that it was the best feed he had ever had, but only up to a certain point. “It Wiis this way,” he said. “About a fortnight ago me and my mate got a job to take some shells up to the trenches on a couple of mules. They told us that we would be back before breakfast, so we took no tucker. At a quarter to one we were only half-way there. My mate for the hour previous had been talking about nothing but a feed. It got on my nerves, and presently he had me the same way? We sat down tor a spell, iind then one mule kicked tho other. In an instant, where the mules and the shells had been was abig hole. I got a kerosene tin that was handy, and in about a quarter of an hour I had it half-full of fiuo[ si: jjooj 41 jo amog -qs^y-apiui to come down as that. Then I made a stew, and we whacked into it in great style. After we had had our fill I saw a bloke coming down form the trenches. He said, ‘That smells pretty good. What is it?’ I said, ‘it’s a stew; have some.’ He whacked into it, and after solid going for about ten minutes, he said, ‘Well, it ain’t game, it ain’t beef, it ain’t mutton. What is it?’ Then 1 had to tell him all about it. By this time he is picking a bone. He tastes it a couple of times, and then he says, ‘Eh, Bill! Have you seen anything of those two Indians as was leading the mules?’ ”