Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1874-12-17
HOW TO ASSESS DAMAGES.

'SH''. Sii''' btb 1'iilt, Nou
critters" :" cried Mr. Eahcock, waiving
his arms as he chased dozen sheep and
lambs through n gap in the fence 1t
was wooden fence, and when he had
succ. cdcd i'll driving the animals on the
other side Of it, he lifted it from its
reclining position and propped it up
with stakes. This was an operation he
had found himself obliged to repeat
MANY times IN the course of the season,
AMI not only of that season but Of sew
eral previous seasons.
Yet Mr. Babcock was neither slack
nor thriftlcss; i'll fact, he rather prided
himself on the ordinary appearance of
his farm, and not without reason. How
then shall we account for his negligence
III this particular instance?
The truth was that this fence formed
the boundary lire between his estate
and that Of Mr.. Small; and three gen
crations Of men who owned these es-
tatcs had been unable to decide to whom
il belonged to rebuild and keep it in
repair. Ii the owners had CHANGED to
L. ,H,u If peaceful dispositions, they
cd a On. II; but if on the contrary,
they .rA.cd To that much larger class
wEo would sooner sacrifice their own
comfort and convenience than their So
called rights, this fence had been Il
source Of unendinT bickcrinS and strife
And Of this class were the present
owners. Again and gain they had con-
suited their respective lawyers on the
subject and dragged from their hiding
places musty old deeds an1 records, but
ALWAYS with the same result.
Il say it belongs to you to keep it
in rcraIr: that's as plain as pike staff, =,
Mr. Bahcock would say
And say it belongs to yoR-any
fool might see that Mr.. Small would
reply, and then high words would fol-
low. and they would part in anger, more
determined and obstinate than ever
The lawyers fees and the loss by dam
ages from each others cattle had al
ready amounted to n sum sufficient to
have built fence around their entire
estate. lut what WAS that compared to
the satisfaction Of having their own
way!
There were not wanting in the neigh
borhOod peace makers who would glad
" have settled the affair by arbitration,
but to this neither If the lclligcrcnts
would listen for a moment.
At last, one day. Miss Letitia Gill, a
woman much respected in the village.
and of some weight as Il landowner and
taxpayer. sent for Mr. Babcock to com,
and see her OH business; summons
which hc made haste to obey. as how
could il hc otherwise where lady was
conorrcI?
Miss l~titia sat at her window sew
ing seam, hut she dropped her work
and took IF her spcctaclcs when Mr.
Babc"ck made his appearance.
so YOU got my message; thank you
for coming. I'm sure. Sit down, do
l suppose my man Isaac told YOU ]
wanted to consult You on matter Of
business u matter Of equity NAV
say. Ii can't be expected that we wo-
men folks should be the best Judges
about such things, you know: there's
Isaac. to hc SURE, but then he lives on
the place. and rnayhe he wouldn't bc
exactly inlpartialin his judgement about
our affairs
.Jcs So said Mr. Rabcock.
Well, the state Of the case Is this :
When Isaac came up from the long
meadow TO they're moving the
meadow to-day, and an uncommoulv
good Weld there Is when he came up
10 dinner he found that stray cows hGd
broken into the vegetable garden
He did. hcy:'
You can fancy the riot they made.
! declared. Isaac was almost ready 10
use profare language. I'm not SURF
that he didn't SAY deuce and l am
certain be did say darn and. after all,
l couldn't feel to rcproach him very
severely. for the pains he has taken
with that garden l. sonnet thing amazing:
wuT.sv-: III il, Mr. Bahcock, early and
late. v.yling and digging and water
IL a-.. now to see IL all torn and
trampicd So that you wouldn't know
which was bects and which was cucum-
bcrs, it's enough to arouse anybody 5
temper
1t is So said Mr. Rabcock.
And that isn't all. for hy the looks
Of things they must have been rampa-
ging in the orchard and clover field be-
for they got into the garden. Just you
come and scc; and putting on her sun.