The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1877-07-13

Farmer Parsippany and Farmer
Vantage were next door neighbors.
Their plow-lands lay side by side, and
their houses were only mile apart. 1t
was Mrs. Vantage who came 10 watch
when the little Parsippanys were all
down with the canker rash, and Mrs.
Parsippany who cut and made winter
Jackets for the Vantage boys. In those
days people helped themselves and help
ed each other, and a neighbor indeed
was neighbor in need.
There we're six little Wantages with
heads the color Of sea sand, and six lit
tie Parsippanys with heads the color of
brick dust. Six Of one and half-a-dozen
of the other. Each family lived in q
brown, gambrel-roofed house with
chimneys a. large as city bedrooms,
and great oaken beams running across
the middle Of the low ceilings. And
every one Of the sixteen supposed that
all children were born to work, so the
boys began to chop wood and hoe corn
as soon as ever they were big enough TO
lift an ak and hoe and the girls picked
mp chips and went for the cows as soon
Is they could walk. Allan Vantage
used To say they put him to pulling pig
weed when he was only day old, and
he remembered il; but nobody believed
that.
THUS the seasons went on, seed time
aud harvest, planting and reaping, till
the farmers got to be what they called
q fore handed enough TO build new
stone wall between their lands. But
then came up an unexpected question.
~ always calculated said Farmer
Vantage. \. that the shagbark at the
turn OF the brook was on my land
well, now, did ye?- replied Farmer
Parsippany. why, I've invariably
run Of a notion the walnut tree belong
ed to me; but guess there'll never be
any trouble betwixt you and me about a
few bushels Of wa'nuts. The youngsters
can pick them up together and 60
shares. They viii ike nothing better. ("
But Mrs. Parsippany was not Of that
turn f.mind.
lou told me as long ago as when
we first began 70 keep company togeth-
er that your land came plump mp TO the
brook. and, as understood 1t, included
the tree. And If the nuts belong to US,
don't see any reason for dividing them
up with the Wantages," said Mrs. Par
sippany, who had very small eyes, q
snip Of nose and complaining voice
Mrs. Vantage was a very different
sort of person, but she was in this case
Of the same mind with Mrs. Parsippany
She was slow-spoken woman, and ev.
cry word seemed to weigh pound as
it came out.
What does the deed say?" she ask
ed, turning her head as she stepped
down and up at the great spinning
wheel.
.well, that Is the thing. We cam
make il out by the deed, 7 replied Farmer
Vantage. 1T says. sand bounded o,
follows, to wits. beginning at walnu
tree That Is the way my deed reads
and neighbor Parsippany's says, in de
scribing his boundaries, running eas'
one hundred rods to land belonging Il
Elisha Vantage According TO law, .
tree, named ia describing boundary, i
neutral properly, as ! understand il. ]
seems to kinder belong to both parties
and mustn't be cut or tempered with b,
either. But what causes the difficult,
II this as luck would have II, the OLE
original tree referred 10 In the deed wa
struck by lightning two and twent,
years ago, more or less, and blew owe
and rotted away, and the new shoot tina
came up to take its place Is ieetie 4
one side, but we cant make out exactl,
how much or which way on account Q
the brook having changed its bed AM
washed away the land, caved II in, ant
50 forth; so there Is quite a piece tina
may be mine and may be his. Well,
h nothing one way or another. 'Tisn'
worth the breath I've spent telling
over to either Of Us, seeing as how we'v
both more land than we can take car
Of. And IL ii was, what thenP Why
we would do twice as much for eac
other any day"
True" replied Mrs. Vantage, draw
ing out her thread from the soft woole
roll and running Il back on the snindl
with - stately q step as thought she ha'
been receiving It . Presidential leevee
SsBut friendship ID one thing, and bus
snass b another think In the en-