The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-07-22
THE BOARD FENCE.

Shoe, shoe, get home, you plaguy
crittersw cried Mr.. Babcock, waving
his arms, as he chased the dozen sheen
ard lambs through a gap in the fence.
II vas Il wooden fence, and when he
had succeeded in driving the animals to
tne other side of it, he lifted it from its
reclining position and propped it up
with stakes. This was an operation he
aad found himself obliged to repeae
many times in the course Of the season,
and not only for that season, but of sew.
erAl previous seasons.
Yet Mr., Babcock was neither slack
nor thriftless; in fact, he rather prided
himself on the ordinary appearance OF
his farm, and not without reason. How
then shall we account for his negli-
gence in this particular instanceP
The truth was that this fence formed
the boundary line between his estate
and that of Mr.. Small; and three gen.
Grations of men who owned these es-
tates had been unable to decide to whom
it belonged to rebuild and keep it in re-
pair. If the owners had CHANGED to be
men of peaceful dispositions, they
would have compromised the matter,
and avoided a quarrel; but if, on the
contrary, they belonged to that much
larger class who would sooner sacrifice
their own comfort and convenience than
their so-Called rights, this fence would
have been n source of unending bicker-
tngs and strife.
And of this class were the present
owners. Again and again had they
consulted their respective lawyers on
thc subject, and dragged from their hid
tng'places muSLy old deeds and records,
but always with the same result.
:" l say it belongs TO you to keep it in
repairi that's as plain as a pike-stafl,"
Mr.. Baboock would say.
And | say it belongs to you-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, and
lawyers fees and loss by damage from
tarh others cattle had already amounted
TO q sum sufficient to have built fence
around their entire estates, but what
was that compared to the satisfaction OF
having their own way.
At last, one day Miss Letitia Gill, a
woman much respected in the village
and of some weight as landowner and
taxpayer, sent for Mr.. Babcock to come
and see her on business; a summons
which he made haste to obey, as how
could it be otherwise where lady was
concernedp
Miss Letitia sat at her window sewing
n seam, but she dropped her work and
took off her spectaclcs when Mr. Bah
cock made his appearance,
80 you got my message; thank you
for coming, I'm sure. Sit down, do.
suppose my man Isaac told you |
wanted to consult you on business n
matter of equity, may say. 1t can't
be expected that we women folks should
be the best judges about such things,
you know; there's Isaac, to be sure, but
then he lives on the place; maybe he
wouldn't be exactly impartial in his
Judgment about our affairs.
"Jes' so," said Mr.. Babcock.
"Well, the state of the case is this:
When Isaac came up from the long
meadow to dinner they're moving the
meadow to-day, and an uncommonly
good yield there is-when he came up
to dinner he found that stray cows had
broken into the vegetable garden"
"He did, heyP"
"You can fancy the riot made. de-
clare Isaac was almost ready to use pro-
fame language. am not sure that he
didn't; and, after ali, l couldn't feel to
reproach him very severely, for the
pains he has taken with that garden is
something amazing; working in it,
Mr.. Babcock, early and late, wedding
and digging and watering, and now to
see it all torn and trsmpled so that you
wouldn't know which was beets and
which was cucumbers. It's enough to
raise anybody's temper"
"It Is So" said Mr.. Babcock.
"And that isn't all, for by the looks OF
things they must have been rampaging
, l..l anJ o1oyn, Gnh hnforn