CONTRASTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 March 1928, Page 4

CONTRASTS.

A TALE OF BLA CKBERRYING. Two Hawera residents recently went blaekberrying, choosing widely separated locations for gathering .the forbid; den .berry. The following day they exchanged experiences. No. 1, a fine upstanding Scot, said that he had a most unhappy experience. With his party he was . picking on a -piece of waste ground and noting that there were more and finer berries on the opposite side of the fence, he hopped the fence and was making .good results when a very irate individual -appeared on the scene, introduced himself as the owner of the property and gave a peremptory notice of eviction. Moreover, he demanded that the contents of the basket should be emptied on the ground. This was too much for the Scot. His pride was touched in that he had to admit that he was in fact a trespasser, though he -considered his action to be, in the circumstances, quite an innocent one. H e tendered his apologv for the trespass and was quite ready to “get out” without fuss or delav, but. to ask him to jettison his fruit, including that gathered outside, was too much. “What I have I hold” was th 0 motto of that .Scot then.and there, and no doubt he looked fully capable of upholding it, for -the comn.and was not sought to be enforced and the eviction was concluded bloodies sly.

Smiling a very expansive smile, No. 2 gently insinuated that No. 1 was ,a very poor picker. ““Mv experience,” he said, “was so different.” He went twice as far from town and finding a nice patch on the roadside his party were getting a fine lot of berries when a lady from an adjoining farm walked down the road and invited the party to pick on “our property,” where the berries were finer and much more plentiful. The invitation was accepted and the promise of better picking was amply fulfilled, the party gathering 12 gallons of fruit in the afternoon. “But that was not the best of it,” continued No. 2. “Sometime before four o’clock the hostess again appeared and said “my husband and I have to ,go on with our milking now, but I hav 0 set out afternoon tea in 'the kitchen for you. Everything is quite ready, please go in and make yourselves at home, I am sorry that we cannot stay with you.” No. 1 appears to be of th 0 opinion that No. 2 is “drawing his,foot,” but the latter is insistent that he is neither drawing anyone’s foot nor drawing the long bow, he avers that he is the better picker and that is all that there is to it.

Blackberries and irate be whiskered cookies are anathema-to No. d meantime.