A KIND-HEARTED STEWARD 



human traits. The close intermingling of those 

 in very varying positions in life is, in itself, an 

 unmixed advantage, leading, as it does, to a better 

 understanding and appreciation of the objects 

 and methods of each, and to a common sharing 

 of trials and difficulties. There are all kinds of 

 opportunities for the exchange of little courtesies, 

 for doing neighbourly turns, and for helping lame 

 dogs over stiles. 



Illustrating this, I will venture upon another 

 story, which shall be a short one. For the better 

 supervision of the yard, several of the stewards 

 of departments sleep in it just before and during 

 the show, a row of timber-built bedrooms being 

 erected and furnished for their use. At several of 

 our shows a stock steward inhabited one of the little 

 huts reserved for those whose devotion to duty 

 induced them to spend the nights as well as the 

 days in the yard, and so he was in constant com- 

 munication with the many herdsmen and others 

 looking after their employers' animals. He had 

 a handle to his name, and had formerly com- 

 manded the crackest of crack regiments, but 

 that he was no military martinet was evident 

 from the feeling with which he was regarded by 

 those subject to his orders in the show yard. In 

 a quiet sort of way, he had interested himself 

 in looking to the general comfort of the stock- 

 men, and, when regulations had to be enforced, 

 his tactfulness conciliated opposition. On the 

 Saturday before the close of the show, as the 

 colonel was unsuspectingly looking round the 

 cattle lines in the early morning, seeing that all 

 was shipshape and in order, a little deputation 



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