GREATER THAN WELLINGTON.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2197, 7 August 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

GREATER THAN WELLINGTON.

TriK late Dr. Norman Macleod tells of a Highland sheep farmer who performed a feat which might have puzzled even the Iron Duke. The^old man could neither read nor write, but he had managed to amass a considerable fortune, and was decidedly open to flattery. A purchaser, knowing his weakness, and atixious to ingratiate himself with him, ventured one evening over their whisky toddy to rematk, ' I am of opinion, sir, that you area greater man than even the (Duke of Wellington !" " Hoot, toot,"' replied the sheep farmer, modestly hanging his head with a pleasing smile, and taking a large pinch ot snuff, "That is too much— too much by far— by far !" But his guest, after expatiating for a while upon the great powers of his host m collecting and concentrating a flock of sheep upon a Southern market, suggested blandly, "Could the Duke of Wellington have done that?'' The sheep farmer thought a little, took a sip of toddy, and replied, "The DuU was, no doot, a clefFer man— very clcffor, I believe. They tell me he was a good sojer ; but then d'yse he had reissonable men to deal with— captains au' majors an' generals that could understand him— efleryone o' them, both om'shers an' men. But I'm not sure, efter all, if hu could manage, say, '20,000 sheep, besides black cattle, that could not understand any word said— Gaelic or English— an' bring effery hoof o' them to Falkirk Tryst ? 1 doot it, I doot it ! But I have often done that myself— ay ?'' The inference was evident.

Mr Gladstone has received many presents of axes lately. He says he does not like the American axe because the end of the heive is bevelled, but in other respects it is thy best axe made.