One bleak evening--and
it can be bleak on the North-Western Downs--the tender heart of a new
jackeroo storekeeper was touched by the sight of two black boys quaking
with the cold, the attire of each being limited to a singlet tugged down
to its extreme limit.
"You no got trousers?" he asked.
"Baal got 'em!"
"All right. Me give you fella some," and the storeman produced two pairs
well worn, which were thankfully accepted.
Half an hour later one of the boys returned, bursting with indignant
language. "What for, you blurry fool. You bin gib it my missis's
trousers?"
DULL-WITTED
At a western station the manager, in order to save a fence newly
erected, thought to satisfy the blacks by leaving a loose coil of wire
here and there for spear heads. But instead of taking that generous
hint, the natives invariably cut out from the fence what they wanted. On
another station in the same district, when a fence was under
construction small coils of loose wire were left every few hundred yards
as a tribute or free will offering; but in this case they again
overlooked the loose stuff and cut what they wanted from the strained
wire.
STRATEGY
Incomprehensibly dull as blacks frequently are they occasionally exhibit
shrewdness which is all the more remarkable because of its
unexpectedness.
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