A CLEVER CABBY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XIX, 30 October 1897, Page 584

A CLEVER CABBY.

The ways of the cabby are past comprehension, and the driver of the hansom in London is no different from his brother of the jinrikisha of Japan. One of the latest and most amusing tales concerning the noble band of drivers comes from a little fishing village in the north of Scotland. The chapel of thia queer and sparsely populated town depended entirely for its supply on the occasional help of the clergy in neighbouring towns. It so happened that uiion a certain very rainy Sunday a new clergyman from the town of S—volunteered to conduct services in the little chapel, and in order to get there he engaged a vehicle which the Englishman knows as a ‘ Hy,’ in which through the pouring rain he was driven across the country to the chapel. Upon his arrival he found no one at hand, not even a sexton to toll the bell to summon the natives, so he took it upon himself to pull the rope, leaving the cabby meanwhile outside in the wet. For a long time nobody arrived, but finally one solitary in-

dividual did ap|>ear, and sat down in a pew nearest the door. The clergyman then donned his surplice and began the service. When this was ended he observed that inasmuch as there was but one memlter of the congregation he thought it would be well to dispense with the sermon. *Oh no, sir. Please go on with the sermon. ’ When half-way through he expressed the fear that jierhaps he was tiring his listener, ami was much gratified to learn from his own lips that such was not the case. ‘ I should l>e glad to listen to you for hours, sir,’ he said, and so the sermon ran on to an hour in length, and finally the service was concluded. The preacher then expressed a desire to shake hands with so flattering an auditor. And then the trick came out—a trick which the clergyman’s near-sightedness had prevented him from seeing at once. His listener was none other than the driver of the fly, who was all the time charging him at so much an hour for the use of his vehicle ! The minister did not even have the consolation of getting even by ordering a collection.