I ask him what he proposes to inspect, and the sum and substance of his reply is that he is not particular, but would not mind beginning at a moderate salary, say L200 a year.

As for his qualifications, they are a sadly minus quantity, his blighted career having included failure for the army, and a clerkship in a bank, which only lasted a week when he proved to be deficient in the second and dangerous in the third of the three R's.

His case reminds me of a story of my ranching days, which the exercise of patronage has so often recalled to my mind that I must out with it.

Riding into camp one evening, I turned my horse loose and got some supper, which was a vilely cooked meal even for a cow camp.

Recognising in the cook a cowboy I had formerly employed, I said to him, 'You were a way up cow hand, but as cook you are no account.