Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-03-11
THE FEUD.

1t was certainly a first rate feud
and a source Of much pride to the
settlers in and about Hickey town.
ship, just as a haunted house, or a
murder mystery, or long lived scan
dial might have been-only the feud
was much more satisfactory, because
it had been on for four years, and
hardly a month had passed, during
all that time, that had not witnessed
some new episode in the affair, and
each one seemed more startling than
it's predecessor. And 40 it was that
the good people of Hickey township
held their heads just little bit
higher than their less fortunate
friends who resided in more peaceful
portioNs of the country.
1.-THE feud-all started on account
of yearling calf, than which, per-
NIT me Ia stock raiser Of limited but
fruitful experience) to interpolate,
there never was nor can there ever
be creature more hopelessly, un-
reasonably ''ornery," and one more
productive of sinful language and
display of sultry temper on the part
of its keepers. Yearling calves have
caused the recording angel more
trouble, broken up more old friend
ships, produced more family jars,
and, in the form of veal, begotten
more indigestion and the insomnia
resultant therefrom than-but this
is not an essay on the sinful, sport
i've steerlet and his shortcomings.
The Walkers and the Benedicts
had been old neighbors for years
"back in Ioway." In fact, the elder
Walkers and the elder Benedicts had
been married about the same time
at the beginning of the war-and had
just settled on adjoining homesteads
when the first gun was fired on Sum-
ter. The men enlisted in the same
company, fought side by side, ate
and slept and suffered together, and
at home their young wives waited
and wept together.
When the little Walkers and the
little Benedicts grew large enough to
run about they were playmates and
boon companions; the children Of
one family felt as much at liberty in
the home of the other as they did in
their own-for twenty eight years
the two families lived in peace and
hmity, and then that miserable calf
precipitated an irreparable row. 1t
was too bad, all the neighbors said,
but it is a noticeable fact that none
of them attempted to patch up a
peace-life in Hickey township and
at Hickey Corners would have been
dull indeed but for the feud; so ev-
erybody sat by and watched each
new phase Of the affair with nervous.
morbid interest and commented
thereon, but not in the manner like
ly to prove conducive to truce on
the part of the disputants.
1t was this way: The Benedict
and Walker houses had been built on
adjacent corners of the homestead
quarters, and were quite close to-
gether; in fact, one well, sunk on the
quarter section line between the two
homesteads, had furnished water for
both families for the first four years
after coming to Dakota, and it was
only a short distance from either
house.
But it came to pass that on the
Walker domain there was born and
grew and waxed fat and sassy" a
brindle calf, with a right smart
chance of white in its eye and
plethora of deep dyed mischief in its
soul-and he for it was a young
gentleman "critter'), while yet of
tender age, but tough record, en-
gendered the feud.
He had wandered away the day be-
fore, and when he returned at night,
the gates Of the calf pen was shut
against him, and in the morning,
when Papa Benedict arose from post
breakfast family prayers, and, fol
lowed by the younger male Bene-
diets, hied him toward the stable, he
beheld his neighbor's incipient steer
nipping in the bud sundry young and
toothsome cabbages and kicking out
of the earth, in his bovine abandon,
all he could not eat.
Then was Papa Benedict wroth,
and thereupon did he give way to
naughty, profane words, while the
young Benedicts surrounded the Of
Tending calf and brought him up for
Judgment.
Now Papa Benedict was a man OF
hasty temper, but easily calmed; 80,
when the calf was rendered him at
the end of long picket rope, his
wrath had decreased several degrees,
and he wound the rope around his
hand and started to lead the calf
home.
1t was while he was pondering on
what to say to the calfs owner that
the calf suddenly remembered pre-
yious engagement and started In
some haste to keep it, heading direct
/ ~. PQDa