SHORT STORIES.
The second instalment of a budget of breezy little narratives—exciting, humorous, and curious—hailing from all parts of the world. This month we publish a humorous Canadian episode and a terrible affair which occurred on an American train.
A BLUFF THAT WORKED.
By J. K. Strachan, J.P., of British Columbia.
This amusing little story was told to me by Mr. John Wood, in the Tecumseh Hotel at Winnipeg. He happened to see there the character I have called “Slippery Dick,” whom he had known in 1881 or 1882 at a small village near London, Ontario, where he then lived, and the sight of the man recalled the facts to his mind. As most of the parties concerned are still living, I have thought it advisable to alter the names.
Dick Small was his name, but we called him “Small Dick,” or “Slippery Dick,” on account of his small and mean ways. Well, one night Sam Smart and I and several other boys were in Steve Brown’s bar, “talking horse,” when old Dick came meandering in, and, of course, chipped in with some of his usual boasting.