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WHAT IS THIS BOY’S CAREER.

1 Lave a boy who puzzles me, writes p. worried fattier to a Home paper., You would describe him as of ordinary "scrubby 1 ’ type, except for a most engaging smile wuich instantly admits hit.,. ,o the confidence and amused n.. .aship of total strangers of all ages and of all conditions in life. He discusses butterflies with the baronet in the Manor House at the top of the till! and singular poultry diseases with apple-faced Betty Hall in the cottage on the common. His friends in the social strata between make a walk abroad with him ns fatiguing as were the perambulations of a staff officer in the West End in war time. My doubts do not concern his capacity for “getting on” with people. They are moral doubts, I want a Society for the Promotion of Knowledge about Hoys to tell me whether he will close his bright career as a City magnate owing eligible mansions or as a shady financier with that kind of address known as "accommodation.” Study the rabbit episode! He was at that- time twelve. In Ids letters to me in France he assured me that rabbits were of national importance. They were a vital part of the great economy and save-the-country campaign. Hence hj ■ obtained from me rabbits and hutches, money for rabbit foods, and bonks on rabbit breeding. Then the rabbits began to die. They died in batches and they died hurriedlv—all hut the last one. ’With this he hastened to the local greengrocer i:i the early dews of the morning and -'old it shamelessly for six and eightpence. That confiding man within an hour find a moribund diseased rabbit; on his hands! This was the boy on his shadv financier side. Or does it indicate the great magnate who also rises : and has all the world for his ovster ? At present ho is of the poultry cultAt the end of his name he appends the letters M.N.U.P.P.. an egotistic mouthful to which he draws the attention of ids schoolbov friends by heavy underlining. The eggs he sells to his mother at top market price, declining to make reductions at the call of the blood, assuring her that if she does not want them his friend the hank director’s wife at the bottom of the lane will take the whole supply daily. Of course he seduces me with his brilliant) smile for cash for the poultry food. And thus he makes poultry pay—at my expense and the taxpayers’. For among his heavy correspondence this morning I noticed a letter with the sign manual of the President of the Board of Agriculture, who, addressing him as "Esq.,” enclosed a mass of assorted pamphlets for poultry keepers, including a learned dissertation on "white comb” and the right way to rear ducks. Will someone please tell me, shall I make him a farmer, or is it his obvious destiny to be "something in the City” ?

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WH19200726.2.113

Bibliographic details

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 12

Word Count
495

WHAT IS THIS BOY’S CAREER. Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 12

WHAT IS THIS BOY’S CAREER. Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 12