SOME GOOD STORIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 74 (Supplement)

SOME GOOD STORIES

MISTAKEN FOR AN ANARCHIST

THe lato Dean Bradley - - It was said of lattqr days by a well-known mail,'' tfiatf. he always looked in the Abbey:; as>if. -he had from one .of the to-inhs, and ivas:: about to creep back again. - A gooch'story is told of an unpleasant experience which befell Dr Bindley on the day of the late Queen’s first Jubilee in ,- 1887. There lia-cl been talk of Anarchists, and the day previous to the great ceremony the Abbey was handed* over to the care of tho Chief Commissioner of Police—then Sir Charles Warren-—as the Lord Chamberlain found his .-staff inyufficient for the purpose. Early the nexo morning Sir Charles Warreii entered the Abbey to see that all was well. Walking down the nave he came upon two stout constables dragging between , v them a. small, fragile old gentleman in a snail cap. “Tins little ole man, sir/' said one of them, “popped out of a little door and he can’t give no account of where he come from.” Then Sir Charles recognised the indignant Dean, and ex-planations-ensued. FROM SOUTH AFRICA. During a Boer excursion to the Delagoa Bay Railway the burghers succeeded in laying' a.,mine-.near Hector’s Spruit Station during the 'night: They were lying-in ambush the next day waiting for a'train to ccfnbdown, when: a' Brit-' ish Tommy went down the lino and noticed some signs of the ground having been disturbed. His suspicions were arojased. /Pretty soon he saw the mine, and took the dynamite out. Two burghers who were lying in the long grass shouted!, “Hands up !” Tommy threw down his rifle, and wi'ch his hands in the air ran up to the burghers. “i say” ho said, before they could speak or make other demonstration, “1 isay, did you hear the news that Mm Botiia gave birth to a son in Europe?” The burghers could not keep from laughing. “I am not telling you a fib,” saidi Tommy, looking slightly injured and extremely innocent.

One of the burghers said they did not doubt- his word, only tho news had come so suddenly. “Well,” recurned Tommy, still injured, “I thought you blokes would bo interested in your boss’s family. That’s why I spoke so quick.” “Oh, go along,” laughed the burghers, “and get some better clothes than those you’ve goo on your back. They’re too torn and dirty to be worth taking, and you’re not worth taking, for you're worth nothing 'without clothes.” Tommy had upset their plans, but they were good fellows, and his speaking “so quick” touched their sense of humour, 4o they laughed him out of sight. A WOLF STORY FROM CANADA. A settlers on the {upper Mattawa River, Canada, tells a story of a wolf which he caught ten or a dozen, years ago. He had read that ships were sometimes cleared of rats by fastening a bell round the neck of one of them. And the idea occurred to him that in a similar manner he might clear the adjacent woods of wolves. He therefore fas’cened a bell round the wolf’s neck and released him.

After the snow had! nearly disappeared, ho allowed his flock of sheep to exercise their lambs in the fields near the house. While he stood watching the gambols of the lambs, the sheep pricked up their ears as if intently listening. Then, with much bleating, the whole flock rushed to the woods. Wondering at this strange freak on the part of the animals, the farmer went about his work. About an hour later the sheep returned, but it was soon discovered that one of the lambs was missing. The next day the same thing occurred, and again a lamb failed to return. The children tried to keep the sheep in the fields, but when they could not do this followed them into the bush. They reported that they had distinctly hard a bell tinkling in the distance. Then it dawned upon the farmer, that the bell be' had fastened to the neck of the wolf was the same which had been borne by one of the flock in the previous summer. The quick-eared sheep had recognised the sound of the bell, and,: true to their instincts, had hastened to- join their last year’s companion. They found not exactly a wolf'dn sheep’s clothing, bub a wolf with a Sheep’s bell attached to him, and ready to dine on .spring lamb. That farmer will not release any more belled wolves.