SAVED BY A JOKE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 17, 12 February 1892, Page 19

SAVED BY A JOKE.

Fob getting a man oat of a bard place a joke is sometimes better than a gun. A Yankee drummer-boy was sent on a little foraging expedition during the late civil war all by himself and bad scaled a bristling picket fence to get at a tree full of tempting rosy apples. He had filled his haversack and his pocket, when he was suddenly startled by a stentorian voice : " Drop them apples, boy, and git, er yer a dead Yank." Crashing through the tall weeds cams the owner of the apples, rifle in hand. The boy ran for dear life, but clnng to as many applet as he could. On reaching the fence he grasped a post and tried to climb over, but the pickets seemed to have gained a foot in height and many degrees in sharpness since he entered the orchard, and, as be scrambled over, one of them managed to insert itself between the small of his back and his leather belt in such a way as to hold him suspended at the mercy of his oncoming foe. « Git, 1 tell you ! Git, or I'll shoot," roared the Confederate. The boy looked over his shoulder, and despite the ugly rifle levelled at his head, called out good humoaredly : " Ob, see here, now don't shoot t Don't you see I'm on picket and c 't leave my post ? " The man lowered his gun, a broad smile came over his face and he answered : "All right sonny, stick to your post." Then he turned and went away in the direction whence be had come, leaving the Yankee boy to get out of his predicament as beat he could, which he finally did by catting his belt with his picket knif c.—e .— Exchange.