A travelling salesman fetched up at a little town on the Murray and after dinner went for a stroll along the river bank. He noticed a swaggie down on a little strip of sand, boiling his billy. With him was a very strange looking dog.

"Funny-lookin' dog you got there, mate," says the salesman.

The swaggie looked up.

"Never mind his looks. He's the smartest dog you'll ever see!

"How's that?" said the salesman.

Replies the swaggie:

"That dog can boil an egg."

"Bullshit," says the salesman.

"All right watch this."

He calls to the dog.

"Boil me an egg!"

"Woof, woof!" says the dog, and goes over to the sugar bag where the swaggie keeps his rations, snuffles around and emerges with an egg delicately held in his teeth. He goes to the billy and deftly drops the egg into the water.

The salesman is staggered.

"Jesus! I tell you what, mate, I'll give you a hundred bucks for that dog. I've never see anything like it."

"Ah, that's nothing, says the swaggie. "That dog knows I like a four-minute egg. Get your watch out and time him."

Sure enough, when the four minutes ticked up, the dog gave another "Woof" and quickly lifted the billy off the hook, poured the water out and placed the egg on the ground near the swaggie.

"God strike me!" says the salesman,. "That's bloody amazing! But why's the dog standing on his head?"

"That's the cleverest bit of the lot," says the swaggie. "He knows bloody well I haven't got an egg cup!"

 

An Egg-Dog.