A DECOY DUCK.

NZ Truth, Issue 105, 22 June 1907, Page 4

A DECOY DUCK.

AN ATHLETE'S ADVENTURE.

Moral : Be Careful Who You

Mash.

In* these unregenerate days of do everybody and let nobody do you, when old iolk shake their heads and recall days gone by, when things were not as they now are, anything is possible, even to the youngi masher who catches the eye of, some bjpgming maiden and presumes on so sMgJrfc-^ an acquaintance to court his catoh.; i$ the orthodox style. Now, it so" happened the other day that, one :ot;i WfilMwgton's crack athletes, who has 'broken clocks and watches, and wpuld even dd damage to the Post Office .clock if it lent itself out to be damaged, made the acquaintance of a ;somewhat shy, yet, nevertheless, fair creature somewhere m the hills that do not protect Wellington, from the wawds. The precise spot cannot be indicated, excepting that it was somewhere near Kaiwarra, where the smells from various tanneries 4 and soap-works, and other employmentgiving concerns, strike the traveller with a hundred horse-power smell. He started out to court' this fair damsel, having caught her on i the hop, as it were, and met her the same evening, and billed and cooed, and proposed to continue the next evening, which was the Sabbath. The teystin'g spot was named, and .ye gallant set forth that same evening to woo and win ye faire maid, but on arriving at the appointed spot, he found the fort held 'biy three or four of Kaiwarra' s 'best brawny and muscular productions, who looked eager for a scrap, and talked loudly of something that was going to happen. Before the appointed time, however, ye , gallant athlete passed his fair damsel on the road, awl as she was accompanied fey a female friend, he thought the toest thing to do was to keep his appointment at the appointed spot, and he hovered about accordingly, INWARDLY CURSING THE QUARTETTE who held the fort. Becoming suspicious that there was something up, the lady-killer crepft behind a fence at the rear of the said big four, and no s«oner was he safely and snugly ensconced than ye faire maid, almost breathless, rus-hed on the scene and waroted to know if they had got him yet. But they hadn't, though one bright member of the gang ventured the assertion that he had seen the said "him" m the vicinity, whereupon the others expressed their intention to tear lilis liver.. out ;_if__ they, came " acr o~ss film,' and as the ' mai den got mad as their missing \their prey, who was listening m terror all the time, the push began to curse the young thing pretty extensively, and quickly vanished along the foreshores of our' beautiful harbor. Perhaps a tragedy was narrowly averted. "Truth" only says "perhaps" because the athlete can do a 100 yards m even time, and doesn't mind a 6ft. fence ,pr two. Anyhow, there is a moral m this story which Wellington lady-killers had better take to heart. Leave Kaiwarra "tarts" alone !