Another Aussie joke.

A swagman (apparently a tramp or a hobo in Aussie slang) comes along a back road to an inn (I changed words for us Yanks). He goes to the back door -and is met by the innkeeper's wife. She tears into him - and berates him. He will not get a morsel of food nor a drop of drink from her! She has a voice like a banshee -but the swagman stands there, silently and makes no reply.

Finally this witch asks the swagman:" Now what do you have to say?"

The swagman says: " May I speak to George?"

Here's another version...

An 18th-century vagabond in England, exhausted and famished, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked.

The Innkeeper's wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" He asked.

The woman glanced at his shabby, dirty clothes. "No!" she shouted.

"Could I have a pint of ale?"

"No!" she shouted.

"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"

"No!" she shouted again.

The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"

"What now?" the woman screeched, not allowing him to finish.

"D'ye suppose," he asked, "that I might have a word with George?"