George Buchanan And The Dogs
George Buchanan And The Dogs
Once there was a drover in Scotland who used to go at times to England with cattle and sheep and somtimes with pigs. He had a very good dog. An Englishman took a fancy to the dog and wanted to buy it; he was willing to pay anything the drover asked. The drover sold the dog for five pounds; the Englishman would have paid more if he had been asked to.
The drover then regretted he hadn't taken plenty of dogs to England; he thought if he could get five pounds apiece for them there, it would pay him better than dealing in cattle and sheep. He started to collect dogs all over the place, until he had collected five hundred of them. He then got a ship and took them to London. When he arrived he didn't dare to tie up at the quay with them; he anchored offshore. He himself went ashore to see if he could sell the dogs. there was no one there eho would buy a dog, people didn't need them.
But whom did he happen to meet but George Buchanan. The drover told him what had happened to him. 'Well,' said George, 'I don't know how the matter will turn out for you at all, but take it easy, perhaps I can make something of the business.'
George then went off and started shouting, 'Who will buy five hundred dogs at five pounds a dog?'. Two Englishmen were standing near by. One of them said, 'What are you thinking of today, George?'. The other said:
'Isn't he a smarty! It wouldn't take much to send him scurrying! Where can he get five hundred dogs?' The Englishman started towards him. 'Leave him alone.' said the other. 'No,' said the first, 'where can he get five hundred dogs? Even if he collected every dog he could find in England, he wouldn't have five hundred.'
The Englishman went to George Buchanan. 'Have you got the dogs, George?' he said.
'Yes.'
'Well I'll buy them. But you must deliver them to me here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.'
'All right,' said George. 'You be here then, and I'll deliver them to you.'
The Englishman went off.
'Go on, now,' said George to the drover, 'and have your ship in here at the quay tomorrow at ten o'clock in the morning.'
Next day George Buchanan came at ten o'clock, and the drover's ship was brought in and tied up at the quay. The Englishman arrived. When the ship's hatches were opened, the dogs were out and up the quay and off out of sight through the town; they were ravenous with hunger and had been eating each other! The Englishman had to pay George Buchanan for the five hundred dogs and then send men after them throughout the country to shoot them before they ate every creature in England.
'Off with you now,' said George to the drover, 'and never come here with dogs or cattle again!'
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