A Porky Story

"Ontliis very day seventeen years =igo," remarked a New Yorker theother day, "] sliipped 1,000 barrels of pork to Washington. I was an army contractor then, and wherever I heard of a barrel of pork I went for it and bought it at some price. I remember this particular shipment because a curious mistake was made." "Hpw?" " Well, I counted the barrels at the depot myself, and there Avere only 990, whcn there should have been an even thousand. Men were ready to roll the barrels into the freight-cars, and to make my number good I took ten bavbarrels of lard f rom a stock ready to ship to Baltimore. ïhey mixed in all right, and of covirse I expected to pay for 'em. A whole dav wfini liv liel'ore I saw the owner. ïliese were stirring times, yon remember. He had found himself short and he cribbed ten barrels of beef to inake good his number of barrels, and hustled the shipment away." "And who did the beef man crib from 't" " Wel), bis beef was for the soldiers, and he made liimself good by buying three barrels of vinegar, two of crackers, and stealing five barrels of apples Erom a lot in the depot." "And did it go any fnrther?" " Yes. The most curious thing of all was that the man I tookthelard from sned the man who stole the apples, and got judgment against hiin for the worth of the lard, and none of the