PACHEDERMATOUS Or PAT McCROSTIE.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 1, Issue 5, 20 January 1911, Page 7

PACHEDERMATOUS Or PAT McCROSTIE.

. +. —. (By KITTY WELLS.) Poor Pat had learnt that " All that glitters is not gold," and did not care to face his old mates at the Serpentine. He Avas a broker, and being a handy man thought he might strike a job in Dunedin. In those days, 1865-70, things hummed in the South, so Pat called at a few shops, and at last was told to call on Mr Eugene Hogley, Rattray Street, Merchant and Financial Agent. I met Pat, and he asked mc to accompany him. We duly arrived at Shylock's Buildings, and Avere ushered into the magnate's presence. Mr hi Hogley was one of those pompous, selfcentred beings who imagine all the rest of the world was made to wait at their beck and call. For brevity, we will call the agent Mr E. H., myself Kitty, which is a pet name, and then there was Pat. Mr E.H. : " 1 want a man to go messages and keep the office in good order. Are you, Patrick, capable of so doing?" Pat: "Every time." Mr E.H. : " Are you any good as book-keeping, double entry and filing bills?" Now Pat looked hard at Yours Truly and then at the boss. " I'll stick to them, but douole entry, I can't see that a messenger's work leads him to any place Avhere oi, c entrance should not be enough to give a message." Mr E.H. turned red in the ace, gasped, and looking hard at Yours Truly said, " My dear sir, I am afraid your friend is slightly matous." Poor Pat, not grasping the true meaning, blurts out: "You're a liar. I'm not Pat M'Dermatoes at all, bat Pat M'C'rostie, and to blazes wid yoa and your entries single and double." The door Avas opened, and Pat and I left. Since that time Pat prospered, tools a pub., did and there is a handsome monument over his grave in the Invercargill cemetery. But poor Kitty must hang on to Wooldom, and beg leave of the Sqnatocracy to breathe and liA r e.