A STORY FROM NEW ZEALAND.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2659, 12 May 1908, Page 2

A STORY FROM NEW ZEALAND.

"Wanted, at once, a rough carpenter ; seven shillings a day. Apply •J. Morris, Onohunga." This advertisement caught, my eye one morning, says the author of "Adrift in New Zealand." when I had been some weeks in the antipodes, and thought it lime to cast about for work. The seven shillings a day appealed to me, and as the advertiser did not say how rough the carnentcr was to be, I decided to appl.\ at once to Mr. J. Mori-is. I applied, and got the job. j In spite of my conceit, however, I felt very nervous when the day arrived on which I had to begin my work. I was at the appointed place a full half-hour before my appointed time, tramping up and down in front of two empty houses, wondering what I would have to do to them. At eight o'clock my fellow worker arrived, and after a critical survey of me. asked if I were the new man ; and on my explaining that I was he had the impertinence to inquire if I knew anything about carpentering. I was piqued. k "No." 1 answered, very sharply. "Neither do I," he replied, as cheerfully as could be, and" swung open a gate and walked into an empty house. From that moment we were fast friends.