A MILKMAN'S EXPLANATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 13 May 1882, Page 2

A MILKMAN'S EXPLANATION.

I will call his * name John Dodger, simply because his name is not John Dodger, Ordinarily he was a good sort of a man ; and I could not positively declare, or affirm, that be was not a saiut* But, he was a milkman, and I beliere that milkmen, like other men, have their human weakness. The widow Lunimingor was an excellont woman, simple-hearted, and honest, eking out a somewhat precarious existence by keeping boarders. John Dodger supplied widow Lnniminger with milk, and when the good woman had engaged, of him a supply of the lacteal fluid, he |i«d solemnly declared that she should have pure milk, and nothing else; and yet. the good woman at length came to fear that her milk was not always what it should be, It happened, upon a certain morning, that the milky fluid was particularly suspicious, both in colour and in consiateuco. It had a blue, etherial look. In short it looked watery; and on the very next morning Bho made it in her way to see that milkman; and with much effort, and sincere regret, she made known her fears and auspioions. "o!—ah! yes I—yesterday's milk]" said Dodger, with surpassing frankness and urbanity. " I noticed it myself. Poor cows! I pitied ,om! indeed, I did Mrs liummiuger. You remember that awful rain—and the thunder and the lightning ? Well,—them poor cows was out through the wholo of it! —jeat exposed to every bit and grain of that terrifio storm! Why, bless yer dear soul! the poor creeters got soaked through and through 1 Mercy on us I Do you wonder their milk got teched, jest a grain, with the dreadful soajqn' |" H Sake? alive! poor things!" And the widow wiped a tear-from her eye and waß satisfied. But thereafter John Dodger was careful, when he came to the widow's door, to select a can, on the broad wooden stopper of which was a single X made with chalk, while the woman next door, who had never complained, got her fluid from a can marked XX. I would not dare to affirm what those X's meant, but John Dodger knew; and in seasons oi severe drought, when the cows gave but little milk, he had stoppers marked as high "3 XXXI