Ellis Parker Butler 
The Water Goats, and Other Troubles [PDF ebook] 

An anthology of three short stories from Ellis Parker Butler.
The stories included are:
1. The Water Goats
2. Mr Billings’s Pockets
3. Our First Burglar
A selection of three humorous short stories from Ellis Parker Butler. They are ludicrous in their narrative and are suited for swift and easy reading. The storyline is rather preposterous and the characters are – like in any other Ellis Parker story – unostentatious.
The pick of the three stories is undoubtedly The Water Goats, a satire on the corrupt and often buffoonery side of politics. It quiet charmingly narrates how political leaders hoodwink the public by getting involved in shady schemes and making decisions – on matters which they have no expertise or real knowledge about – that results in the squandering of funds from state exchequer. 
The other two stories, Mr Billings’s Pockets and Our First Burglar are not outright funny like the first story. And all these stories can feel a bit dated – originally published in 1910 – as they are from a very different time period.