A DOG SHOW.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 49, 19 November 1892, Page 11

A DOG SHOW.

' " Want V speokilale in a doc, mate?" The strange, snridowner whistled the ; sorry, -sore-eyed, fly-bitten-nondescript away from the neck of mutton hanging 'ia the "colonial" safe-behind onrbu., ' and held, him aloft by the remains of a '? tail. "He's game, y; see." " What's he pood for,- anyhow p" "AnythhY. I wouldn't sell him, on'y I'm gbin' up t' St, Arnaud's t' bury -mother. Take him fer a quid. He'll run errands, steal meat an' chickens, .perform on a powder keg, keep' flies off th' grab, an 1 he's th' best sheep an' cattle dog on th' roads 'tween here an* Britibin, Say eighteen bob an' a drink fer two. If you'd'seen that dog work sheep you wouldn't take from me for ' less than a fiver—-you'wouldn't, have'th' '■ heart to do it. He'll work ten thousand v thropgh acrackin a fence, an' you won't gather enough wcol off th' palm's t' ■ plug yer ear with. Kay 'fifteen Roberts ; an'l*ll slingin a pedigree. See here, •mate, whisper,, that >pnp. there '11 ■^cut'a "mob" into squads an' drill 'em. 'He'll teach''m I' form.fours an' march ' into ah'-yards to the tune 6f ' Th' ole ''Bnllpck^Dray !'. Jake ken. round every grasshopper in a fort\ -acre paddock into ajam-tin. He'll draft an' keep tally. You -wonYbe Pech a'fool c.« t' Bay balf a-quid's too stiff for a gifted animal like that. See him aftei cattle! He'd yard a 6iin6truck scrubber info a bail, or lead 300 head of wild 'uns through a "Wesleyan picnic without ppillin' the' milk. (Eight bob, I said, nn' it's a sin I'ipart. a dog thet's-been in tire '/juaijy--Bo ':l

oug, but there ■ ain't • any help fer it. ■ Eight' bob for a pure-bred cattle-dog an' a gifted liuguist." J "A what-er:?" " A linguist. Understands language*, yeh . know. -That humble-100 kin' dog ken work sheep in three languages— English, German, an' Welsh, an' he knows a little* Chinese. >.Yoo ■ ken- have j him for half-a-crown. No, I don't think you're any ——. mug, not at all. You see be first' learnt t' handle, jum| bucks with a Cockney ; then a German —Yarman Harry—leJler with one ear — booght'him, an' he had t'.pick up th' business in German. 'Then a fat newchum .Welshman paid a fat price fer him, au' taught him th' orders in Welsh. He picked up th. Chinese;as he went along. ■- :Halfi.a«crowri." Phil, chipped i&, after examining the canine prodigy. " Why, damn it all, man! ThatV the mongrel from Blackham's at Ball's Corner, that comes up here after our rations!" , ; -, Another man • might - have been discomfited by this revelation; not bo the weary wanderer. He scratched his chin reflectively for a moment; then he looked up, radiuntly. ; "That a fact ?" he said. " -Well, tell you what, -mates. Give us_>a...pipe of terbacker, an' I'll drown the blanky, crimson, condemned ole hybrid. i