A Busman's Holiday. By Hugo N. Bolton.
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
We're both keen fishermen, Jack Rownley and I. We had just arranged on the telephone to meet at Earlton Waters in an hour-and-a-half's tune. Whitsun Monday is everybody's holiday, I think, even a motor agent's.
I was running through my tackle finely until the. telephone bell rang again. "The lorry's broken down three miles out on the Bristol Road," a voice cried, "'Can you come at once 7 " " What's the /natter " I asked.
"Don't know," came the reply from the man who turned out to be the driver. She won't move a yard, and I've got to get the stuff through to Bristol to catch a boat sailing on Wednesday." Was ever a man in a more annoying position? Nobody to go except myself. A fine morning, good fish-. ing weather, tackle ready, hamper .,nacked, and a couple of bottles—never mind the bottles lit was too bad altogether. -I wanted to tell the lorry and its driver to go to—well--or stop where they were. But there's something about the motor business that gives a man a sense of responsibilities, and so I barked into the receiver as ill-tempered an "I'll come" as sharply as I possibly could. I put some tools into the sidecar of my motor-bicycle, told the wife to ring up Jack Rownley, and started off. I found the lorry in due course, but the repairs took nearly four hours to put through. The best part the day was gone, and I was like a man with a raging toothache, neither fit to „speak or to be spoken to: I got a little bit of fishing in the evening, but the whole day had been ruined. Business again on Tuesday, and on the Wednesday morning I got this letter :
"Dear Sir,—We very much appreciate your good efforts on Monday last in connection with our van on its way to Bristol. As we believe our driver told you, the goods were for shipment abroad to-morrow, and it was only due to your good offices that we were able to fill this order, on which, it so happened, a great. deal depends.
"Please accept our wannest thanks, and if you are able to quote us for two new lorries, one With a capacity of 2 to 3 tons, the other with a capacity up to 6, we shall be happy to receive your quotations in due course."
Since I landed both the orders, I am moire inclined to regard my lost Bank Holiday with due equanimity.