The Florida agriculturist., 1907-10-02
THE COLONIES WATERLOO

! De ClOSeQ IOT IHc SulllllCl' LII Illo
they were wrong. The Colonel meant
/ fight.
g He could not fail to appreciate the
rapidity with which Waterbury OBJ
tanned results. The pond covered some
Is acres, seldom obtaining depth OF
10 feet. A line between the two boun-
daries Of the intruder's holdings was
run and along this wire netting kept
to their own side of the pond the musk
rats that Waterbury had imported
! from other streams.
The old residents who had regarded
the idea of fur farm as pleasantly
soon changed their minds, and when
the shipment of frogs legs commenced
they surrendered Internationally.
Ever since the day Fred Waterbury,
in all innocence, had raided the Colo
nel's pet stock and had cost him half
a million in less than six hours, Wat
erbury had been regarded as thing
, of evil, The tacit acceptance Of his at
tention to Clio Carr became active
opposition
To justify himself in his daughters
eyes he had pleaded that Waterbury
had no means Of gaining a livelihood,
ignoring his Millions Until he arriv-
ed in CarrSvile he had congratulated
himself upon the success of his STRAIT
egy, yet here was Waterbury calmly es-
tabishing what he could see was going
to be a very profitable business.
Not only that, but he had utterly de-
strOyed the picturesqueness of the little
lake that had added so much to the
view from castle Carr The huts Of
+1oo
slightly, though they were too crowded
to be picturesque, too suggestive to a
mans industry, but the fence poles
stuck gauntly from the water, and, Of
course, boating was impossible.
This latter gave Carr an idea and
presently he announced a suit The
lake had been formed by a dam built
when the original Carrs owned the en-
tire territory The dam now lay on
Waterbury's property, but the Colonel
claimed RIPARIAN rights.
If he expected fight, he was dis
appointed. Waterbury moved his
muskrat colony upstream where he
built a temporary dam, let out the
water from the lower dam, built
stone wall where the wire fence had
been, turned back the water again and
left the Colonel with several acres Of
odOrous mud where his share Of the
lake had been.
An offer to purchase was treated
with disdain and Carrsville grinned de-
lightedly They had long suffered from
the Colonel.
Then came the final straw in the init
nation that a scion Of royalty had de-
cided to visit ''the states" and would
accept the ColonePs repeated invita-
tons
II am anticipating with great pleas
ure,' wrote the parsonage, "a visit to
Castle Carr | recall the photographs
you showed me and am anxious to
see an American country place."
For an hour the Colonel sat before
the window, looking out across the
rank marsh grass to the ugly wall and
the colony of muskrats on the further
side Then he glanced up at the wall
where an enlargement Of the photo
graph of the old lake hung
Clio appeared three days later in
answer to the summons. It was too
dark to see the lake when she arrived,
but early the next morning she look
ed out of her window and gigg1ed with
a most unhlial appreciation of Water
bury's attack.
She preserved a grave face at the
interview with her father, and pres
emily she departed behind the Carr
chestnuts, clothed with plenipotenti- |
airy powers.
Apparently Waterbury had some