Joyful Shuf.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 218, 3 September 1887, Page 3

Joyful Shuf.

'• Well," said Don Cabeza, something having given him his cue, " a lot of youngsters were collected one Sunday afternoon round a badger hole in which there was a mighty obstinate badger— one of those old toughs that you could knock « parks out of with a hammer. Anyhow the young sports had put all their swell imported terriera into him, and the old badger had come out on top every time — at least he hadn't come out on top, because he hadn't como out at all ; but when he and the dogs got to chewing one another underground, he appeared to have away ahead the finest appetite. It seemed he had enough patterns of hide down there for old. Ma'am Badger tomako a crazy quilt of ; and the boys were just about to quit when a chap who was standing by looking on said, kind o' sadly, ' I guess, masteis, that my old dog'd fetch that badger out for you - if you want him out, that is.' " The stranger was one of those plankshaped citizens, with shiny hair, like seaweed ; he was a coflee-coloured cuss, and looked as melancholy as a sick monkey. His clothes might have been entailed elotnes, in which the family had lived for centuries ; and tho mongrel was about as nearly like his master as a dog could be. Well, sir, tho young bucks took a look ab them both, and the more they looked the more they laughed. The notion that the cur could beat all their finely-bred, imported torriers, just tickled them to death ; and firat one, and then another, and finally the whole boiling of them offered to bet 20, 30, 40 to 1 against him— anything the owner liked, in fact. But they couldn't bluff the old man off ; he stayed with them; he seemed to have more money along, too, than you'd expect to find in such old clothes. And the more the boys kept sousing it to him, the moro he kepb taking 'em, till finally they quit. And when the bets were all laid out on a big stone, there was more money there than would patch Old Nick's cabin a mile. Well, they stood around to see the fun. It was pretty cleai that some one was going to fall awful rich before the deal was over. However, the visitor didn't seem like ha thought that it was going to be he. He picked the mongrel up and stroked him tenderly, and tho old clog winced a little mite too, as if he could see a chapter or so | ahead of him. " Put him in," said the boys, " put him in !" " Right now, gentlemen," said the stranger, and stooping down he prized him gently into the carth — stern first. Well, sir, you should have heard those boys laugh when they saw that. Laugh? ' Well, I should say they did laugn. For a minute or two the clog lay thete with his head out of doors— one eye fixed reproachfully on his master, the other cocked anxiously backwards. Then allot a sudden there was a terrific yelp, and a cloud of dust, and he shot out of the hole with the badger fastened on to him. And for the life of you, you couldn't have told which looked the most foolish- the young sports or the old badger. As for the stranger, he lalced in the bets, and when he'd got a little way oft he turned aiound as if he'd forgotten something, and says he, mournfully— " Boys — Misters, I'm from Pecos County, Texas. I'm o'ny a school-teacher thar, but they all i know me. Shuf s my name — Eb'neezer Shuf— ask for l Joyful' Shuf." — Francis | Francis, Jun.