A Stranger, and She Took Him In.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 4980, 22 May 1891, Page 4

A Stranger, and She Took Him In.

(Wellington Post.) It happened in this way. Among the victims to a heartless scheme of Government retrenchment was a civil servant, whose social lines were laid among the elite and the Blue Bloods of Thorndon and elsewhere. Great was the sympathy expressed with this dispensed-witli officer, but he was equal to the occasion, although wrathy at the curt treatment he had received from the authorities. He announced to his friends his intention of straightway earning the nimble sixpence by the sweat of his manly brow and the sale of vegetables grown on his modestholding in a suburban district. He would,, he said, regardless of "form," "boniou," "prestige," and other shiboleths of an upper crust circle, himself drive a horse and cart and hawk the succulent cabbage, the luscious carrot, the homely turnip, and ''greens" generally, in the fashionable quarter of the city. Thus would he not only gain an honest, if bucolic, living, but also he would, each time he served their households with vegetables, shovel coals of fire on Ministerial heads that such a one as he had come down to such menial avocation. It is needless to say this discarded civil servant was much condoled with by his lady friends. They agreed, too, to patronise his vegetables. One of them accordingly thus instructed her handmaiden: "Sopho nisba Jane ! I have to go out tliis morning, but a man will call to sell some vegetables. Well, you know, he is not exactly a man—a common man—he is a gentleman! And you will please buy a quantity of vegetables from him. Yes ! and afterwards, Soplionisba Jane, ask him into the dining room and give him a nice luncheon and a cup of tea ! Don't forget, there's a good girl, because, you know, he is not a common market gardener—you understand." Not long after her mistress hiid gone out, round came a vegetable hawker. The girl thought lie was a rough-looking fellow, but obedient to instructions she purchased from him enough green stun to last month, and then she asked him to "'Step in, please, sir." It is true that the hawker looked at the girl, and said, "What are yer giviu'us?" but he went in, was fed, and had his tea. After this he left with a dazed sort of expression as if life was a superlative mystery to him at that juncture. -Presently the lady returned. She asked the servant if the vegetable man had been. The servant narrated what had occurred. "And did he appear pleased ? " she asked ; " did he say anything 1" '" ma'am," said the girl, somewhat hesitatingly; "nothing particular." "Are you sure? He must have said something," said her mistress. "Well, ma'am; he did say something. He were a-goin' hout, when he remarked as how the feed was a adjective good 'un, but the tea was sanguinary 'ogwash!" It then dawned upon the lady she had entertained a stranger unawares. Moreover, when that ex-Civil servant comes round with the cabbages, he will not get his lunch and tea.