Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-05-23
A NEIGHEORLY FEUD.

A NEIGHeoRLY FEUD.
Ill tell you, Frank, it's got to the
point where something must be done,
said Mrs. Burnett, and as she spoke
she raped at the small knuckles that
were moving toward the sugar bowl.
Morton, aged nine, jerked his hand
out of the way and laughed at bis
mother, who pursed up her lips to
conceal a smile.
Don't do that, Morton" said Mr..
Burnett. Then turning to his wife he
asked: "What have they been dom
now?"
"That boy and some more of his
crowd put tin cans along the top OF
the fence and then threw at them to
knock them off. About every other
stone went over the top Of the fence
and went sailin across our back yard
If one of them had struck anybody he
wouldn't have known what hurt him.
"What did you do?'
"What did | do? | went out and
told them if they didn't stop I'd send
for a policemen. | said to that Dea-
kin boy; It's shame your mother
can't teach you to be little better
than a savage.
Maybe she didn't know they were
doin it. -
a do believe she puts 'em up to it.
That boys enough to try the patience
of a saint.
Next time he comes into our yard
III bet I throw something at him,
put in Morton, whose chin was drip
ping with a mild mixture of milk and
coffee.
"You leave him alone, said the
male parent. you get into enough
fights already
"Well, Frank, those boys are for
ever picking on to him" said Mrs
Burnett.
Boys are good Ieal alike, re-
sponded her husband. "I'll bet when
he gets out he's the same as the rest
Of them.
Morton grinned and said nothing.
The only member of the Burnett
family who had not joined in the ar,
raignment of the neighbors was Alice
six years of age. She knew all about
the feud and shared in the suspicious
of her mother, but at present she was
too busy with supper.
The Deakins lived next door, and
although there was a dividing fence ii
had not kept the two families apart.
In the year during which the two
households had dwelt side by side
there had been a growing enmity. Yet
Mrs. Burnett had never spoken a WORD
to Mrs. Deakin, and her husband
knew nothing of Mr.. Deakin except
that he worked with his hands for g
living and spent great many of his
evenings at home.
1t would have been rather difficult
for either the Burnetts or the Deakini
to explain how the feud started, bu
it was operated from the start through
the children.
There were two Deakin children
Lawrence, or Larry, aged ten, and lit
tie Willie, who, at the tender age O
three, had learned to regard the Bur
nett tribe with scorn and hatred anC
suffer, to some degree, under the III
dignities heaped npon his family by
that arch fend of juvenility, Mortol
Burnett.
For when the Deakins sat arounC
the supper table and cast up the &C
counts of the day it was Larry VIII
posed as the prosecuted and abuse'
child. while Morton Burnett was pic
tured as an infant of dark intents
headed straight for the Bridewell.
"If l was a man, Tom Deakin, salt
the wife, I'll warrant you Id g
over to that house and give motto
that things are simply going too faI
Today that boy got up on the tenc
and called Lawrence all kinds G
names"
HE said that his mother said tha
ma didn't have clothes fit to wear,
suggested Lawrence, who had begu
to breathe hard during the recital c
his grievances.
Anyway, I don't try to make my
self look like peacock every time
start to church" said Mrs. Deakln.