The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-10-28

And let the waters roll q er me. too.
l would rather rest on the shifting SAND
With you, than alone in the world to stand:
BE tier far would it be to die,
And lie in the ocean where YOU lie.
Oh, Donald. would might lie with thee
In the drifting sepulchers of the sea!
Hartford Conn., COtsy0Wk
MR.. NETRERSTONE'S FENCE.
1T will have 10 come in, Mr.. Neither
stone." said the engineer.
..How much?'
Five inches where it joins Baseline's
fence, and four feet three at the other
end. 1t swings out very rapidly on your
lot. The man must have been cross
eyed who run that line."
Well"
And there was more resignation than
patient acquiescence in the miller 8
tone. He turned away without further
remark and went into the house, while
the civil engineer and his assistants
gathered up their instruments and
paraphernalia appertaining to their
profession, and went away to run the
line for the curbing on the south side
of Jonagin's alley, from Market street to
the river, and they drop into their
municipal duties and out of our MARIA
tive.
Mr.. Netherstone was out of humor,
to say the least. He was man of yield
ing and peaceful disposition; he said so
himself. He liked his ease, and he enjoy
ed his comfortable home. and he disliked
controversy. He had never quarreled
with neighbor in his life until Baseline
fairly forced him into this unpleasant
ness. He was amazed at what he termed
his neighbours insutferable, meddlesome
meanness. What difference did it make
to him if the fence was shaped like a
crescent. long as ''the city" didn't care.
and the Council didn't interfere? Not
that the honest miller was covetous,
and wanted unlawful possession of the
little strip of the city's street upon
which his front fence had encroached
ever since old Isaac Stringer laid of
his farm in town lots, twenty-eight years
ago. Mr. Netherstone had offered the
city thrice the value of the strip if he
might let his fence stand; but streets
are streets, and the lines must be ac-
curately run and rigidly adhered to.
and great part of the duty of the
engineer of to-day is to correct the
blunders of the engineer of yester-
day. So Mr.. Netherstone's fence
must come in, and its removal
would throw two of his finest
naples, and an elegant rose bush, a
liking of the blacks and "Balti-
more BELLE" that crept along the in
side of the fence like hedge of bios
SONS and perfume, all outside; and how
long would such things last on the side
walk? Mr.. Netherstsne was fairly i'll
with vexation. He had exhausted every
plea and argument with his neighbor;
he had coaxed, cajoled, reasoned, pro-
crastinated, temporized, promised
with many mental reservations-used
every argument and expedient save
threats-for the miller was not q quar-
relsome man-but all to no purpose.
There came time when the evil day
could be put off no longer, and Mr..
Baseline took the regular legal meas
ures to compel his neighbor to comply
with the "ordinances made and pro.
vided," and the fence had to come in.
"An' yit," said old Isaac Stringer,
who used to own all the land in that
part of the city, when some of the door
yards were his "truck patches" and
the croquet lawns of the present were
the sheep folds and pig pens of the
past" an yit ye can't say that Base
line done this fur meanness. I've
knowed Tom Baseline sinst he was q
boy in bare feet an stone bruises, an
tell We they's no meanness in him. It's
Jest his way to be perticklar about land.
IT, hat l,>sk
afford to move yer fence, MIR. Neither
stone, Tom nd move it for We. Why,
it want three weeks ago he found an
old Irishman way over on the furder
side of town had built his fence and
cow-shed, innocent enough. more'n six
foot out into worthless kind of q lot
belongin' to q nonresident that don't
seem to care continental cent who oc-
cupies it, an has probably never seen
it. fur it's gone delinquent fur taxes
three years past-an' declar' IF Base
line didn't poke around, an git the city
engineer out thar, an he made that
Irishman take in the fence an shed, and
then Tom paid every last dollar of the
expense himself. He did, fur a fact.
He amt mean, he's on'y perticklar an
tidgety. Anythin' out O. the plumb
nettles him. It's his way"
And, indeed, it was his way. Aside
from his uncomfortable propensity to
have things about him methodically
regular, square, faultlessly correct, Mr..
Baseline was a good neighbor, a genial
man. kind-hearted, and even given to
charitable works; but in greater mat
tiers of law. the line of = neighbor' 6
property, the setting of metes and
bounds, and even in more trivial mat
tiers, he was unbending and unyieldine
as . rule in mathematics. He fairly
startled and puzzled the stately and
elegant Mrs. Cachemire, when he and
Mrs. Baseline made their first formal
call, by suddenly springing to his feet,
after q few moments of restless fidget-
ing, and remarking that he :" couldn'
stand it any longer" walked up to a
painting that was hung . little askew,
and carefully Strengthened it On one
occasion, when he was member OF the
august reception committee, sitting
near the head of the table at . grand
dinner given to the Governor and staff,
he leaned forward, half way across the
table, while Rev. DR.. Phylacter was
saying grace, and knocked over the
goblet at the Secretary of States elbow,
with crash that made the good doctor
forget what he was saying, Just to
smooth out crooked wrinkle in the
table cloth three places below him.
People said it used to worry him be.
cause his daughter, Nellie, was nearly
an inch taller than her brother. Jack,
who was two years the older. The ele-
giant shade trees about his handsome
home were all coaxed and bullied and
trimmed into such an exact similitude
that they all seemed to have been grown
IN pod, like peas. He whipped hia
horses when they didn't step alike, and
he parted his hair in the middle, moi