NOT AS STUPID AS HE SEEMED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 6 (Supplement)

NOT AS STUPID AS HE SEEMED.

It was an old man—so runs the tale —who gave to a stranger an answer that was wiser than it appeared. The stranger, one of a prospecting party searching for gold, had wandered away from the iizi, to find himself at last with a fair piece of quartz as a reward for his pains, in a region he knew nothing- of, and with no guide, and night coming on.

'Friend,' he asked of an old man smoking in his doorway, 'how long will it take me to walk to the next town?'

The old man eyed the speaker quizzically.

'Walk on,' he said, with a wave of his hand in the right direction. • 'Yes, I know which road; but how long will it take me to walk there?' asked the stranger again. 'Walk on,' repeated the smoker, stolidly.

'But can't you tell ihe how long it will take me to reach the town?' persisted the other, impatiently. 'Walk on,' a third time directed the old man, and the stranger did walk on, inwardly anathematizing the stupidity of the smoker. 'Young man,' called the resident, when the stranger had gone a few yards.

He turned impatiently. •I just wanted to tell you, that if you keep up that gait you'll get there m half an hour.'

'Why couldn't you say so before?' demanded the stranger, hotly. The old man removed the pipe from his mouth, blew a volume of smoke skyward, and answered, coolly: 'Sow did I know how fast you could