Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-13

ing OF our tale, on Drlgnt morning MT.
Mitchell and the squire met in the vii
lage street. After friendly salutations
Mr.. Gelston asked of his neighbor if he
was willing to make one more trial to set
tie the boundary of the wood-lots, and as
that day promised to be fine weather, to
go at once upon the work.
eyes," said Mr.. Mitchell, 'I will go,
although l had intended to go after lot
of soft shell CLANS at Cold Spring. But
never mind. they will keep. Yes, will
go and take the old deeds to get the
courses and distances of the land"
"Oh. by the way, suppose we have my
son Thomas along to run the lines. You
know he has set of surveying instru-
ments and must be familiar with all the
new wrinkles in the business as he has
Just graduated at Yale. There he comes
now. Tom, we were just speaking of
tackling the old boundary line at Sebonac
do you feel competent to undertake the
BUSINESS"
''Yes, l think I can run wood line
without any trouble. I was thinking
about the old boundary line last night
and the idea came into my head that l
could solve the problem that has baffled
the old town surveyor. You see, neither
the first surveyor who laid out the lots
in 1850 when the deeds were written, nor
the old living surveyor ever thought of
the variation of the needle. We stumbled
on just such difficulty in our practice
at college. Well, looked over my notes
at once and found that in 1850 the
variation of the needle was about eight
degrees west, and now it is about six
degrees west. This correction may show
us the true line"
"Good, my boy, that's good idea, ~
said the squire, "and we'll give it trial.
You go home, neighbor, and get your
deed and l will harness up at once and
take you with u.s."
Once in the woods, there was no diff
Guilty in finding the starting point at the
southeast corner of the land of Mr..
Mitchell, which was, of course, the
southwest corner of that of Squire
Gelston. These lots were in long paral-
kilograms, the longest in northerly and
southerly direction. This corner was
marked by rough-hewn stone, broken
from one of the coarse granite powders
that are quite common on Long Island,
having been dropped there in past geol-
ogic ages from the icefelds or icebergs
of New England when the island was
under the sea. The course, as laid down
in the old deed brought by Mr.. Mitchell,
was north seven degrees west, eighty
four rods; thence south twenty rods, etc
The line, run on this course by compass
eighty-four rods, terminated four rods to
the south of the rude, rounded stone
which Mr.. Mitchell claimed as the true
cornerstone from information given him
by his father. But the line, thus run,
cut off triangle eighty-four rods long,
four rods wide at one end and coming to
point at the other at an included angle
of about two degrees and forty-four
minutes, and included q little more than
an acre of heavily timbered land, claimed,
as we have seen, by both parties. The
young surveyor, making the proper cor
rection for the change in the variation of
the needle of two degrees, laid off the
new line south five degrees west, and,
to the surprise and chagrin of the Squire,
it ended so near the cornerstone claimed
by Mr.. Mitchell, as to put it beyond dis
pute, that the latter had but claimed his
own. But the Squire was as upright in
his own dealings as he was in adjusting
the disputes of his neighbors.
"The land is yours, Hiram, and I had
rather it should be so than to have it in
doubt. And, Tom, my boy, the satisfac-
ton get from your work to-day, more
than repays all your college education has
cost me. And, l think your mother will
be as happy as either of us, when she
learns bow you have settled this old diff
ference. But one thing 1 will say: |
have lost confidence in the magnetic
needle; l shall never have my old respect
for it again. To point one way one day
and another, another-bah !"
The first day of May has come and still
no tidings of the Ticonderoga. The
fields have turned from gray to green.
The spring crops have been planted,
fences repaired and there comes lull in
the industries of the farms. The daily
stage to Sag Harbor is starting with the
mail bag for way stations and New York
and thence to all points of the compass
to the ends of the earth. The street was