The Portland daily press., 1886-01-09

Lawyer Clatteree looked intently at the
jury moment and then at the court, and
then back to the jury again.
THAT will do" she said, and sat downs
victory shining on her clear, hopeful brow.
Well, when she went before the jury with
her case, Lawyer Clatteree made it turn on
| that ten-acre field. She described the wit
ness so stricken in years that she could not
the jury had seen that-tell her own age !;
! she dwelt upon the limitation of human Wis
| ion; of all the known aids to vision; and
when she had fully established the greatest
range of the naked eye, she described this
| ten-acre field stretching out between the wit
ness and the battle she professed to have
seen; she dwelt upon the rolling greensward,
its nndulating waves of emerald; the billowy
fields of golden grain dimpled by the breath
of the idle summer wind; the wind-sWept
hill, its rocky feet kissed by the wandering
brook that sang to the clustering alders on
its way to the distant sea- the forest of SOL
emn oak and whispering elm, lifting their
swaying heads to kiss the feecy clouds that
stopped to bless them; and even dragged in a
winding country road, lying hot and dusty
in the July sun, with the loaded wainS,
creaking along its far-reaching perspective,
and when she had woven the landscape of
whole country, including a little dove-cot of
dollhouse, into her picture of Miss Vir-
ginia Nonsuch's ten-aere moving lot, she
wanted the jury to lay their hands on their
hearts and hold them there while they formu-
lated verdict that would set the cold seal of
judicial condemnation upon the evidence of
any living human being who could swear
that he or she could not only see people
across this widespreading landscape, but
could hear their voices and actually affect to
recognize them.
The prosecuting attorney, a Wretched snipe
of pettifogger who was brought up on
farm and knew more about buckwheat than
he did about Blackstone, talked about five
minutes; the jurors, who were all farmers,
went grinning out into the jury room, and
came back in about five or ten minutes with
a verdict for the complainant. Bluegrass
was fined for trespass, found guilty of as
sault and battery, and had to pay for the
dog, and the sun that rose in cloudless SPLEEN
dor and all the balmy warmth of midsummer
on Clatteree and Bluegrass that morn went
down in cloudy west and frosty sky, 1t
was cold day when the jury came in.
In Lawyer Clatteree's cosy little office
Webster Bluegrass stood, dejectedly fumb-
ling an old leather wallet, rather gaunt in
condition, while his attorney, the roses in her
face a trife faded made out her bill for legal
services, which was robust as the roses were
faint. Two hundred and City dollars.
Webster Bluegrass looked at the bill as she
handed it to him, and let the lank wallet fall
to the floor. A moments oppressive silence
and he said:
well, Miss Clatteree, don't say that it's
any more'ns right and fair, but-but-l
guess you'll have to take the farm fort. .
And he added hopefully, with just CHEEKY
ghost of smile twisting the corners of his
mouth;
There's sixteen ten-acre pieces on it,
Miss Matte.
Lawyer Clatteree rose to her feet and
walked over to him and took the bill away
from him; she receipted it with wondrous-
ly tremulous signature for such a calm, self
possessed lawyer as Attorney Clatteree, and
when she laid it back in his big brown hand
the.little ink stained fingers still kept hold Of
it and the big brown hand shut both up out
cf sight-and Lawyer Clatteree never had
another case in court; never.
l passed fortnight on the Bluegrass farm
last SUMNER used to go to school with
Web-and the second evening was there
an angular looking woman drove up to the
door and asked for Matte.
'Oh, it's Jennie Witeman, said Mrs. Blue
grass when l delivered the message and de-
scribed the visitor. "They join farms with
us, and she's just the dearest. sweetest old
maid of a married woman" and there she
was, sitting in the phaeton, hugging the an
gular female and coaking her to stay to sup
per.
Indeed, dear. I can't tonight" replied
Mrs. Witeman. 'I'm expecting friends of
Jared's from town and / must hurry right
away It's getting late, and it's long way
across a ten-acre field, you know"
It sounded like slap, but | saw it was
kiss, and Matte laughed as she saw the an
gular female drive away to an old farmhouse
that fronted ours.
"Do you know she said, turning to me,
f'that this house of ours is built on a battle
field? This ten-acre piece used to belong to
jimmy before she was Mrs. Witeman, and
one time Web and jared
But just then Web came in.