The daily Alaskan., 1915-04-16
AViIlage Tale
 By M. QUAD Copyright, 1915, by the McC'uFe Newspaper Syndicate.
By M. QUAD

met at the postofflce one evening, and as they sat around aud whittled and waited for the mail to come in Silas Iazlly queried
 "Eben, you've been to Cat Hill hundred times, I reckon, and jest how fur do you call 1t from Hopeville%
 Jest as far as 1t is," answered Eben after thinking for about three minutes.
 And that's ten milesT
 "WhO said it was?"
 ''I SLY so. I carried the mail on that road fur three long years, and l recE- on | know the distance purity well. l asked you because some one said you call 1t only nine and a half miles"
 And that's what I'm sayin' this mInit. It's nine miles and a half to an inch"
 Say, Eben, didn't you measure 1t witl q purity short tApellnef' asked SiIua as he whittled away.
 "Irs jest nine and half," answered Ebcn In a dOgged way.
 Its exactly ten"
 Not an inch over nine and halfr
 Not an inch under ten mnesl"
 "SilaS, are you crazy or born foolp asked EOem as his hair began to curl
 "I ain't big nun fool to call 1t nine miles and a half to Cat Hill" yelled SilaS in reply.
 They jawed about 1t half an hour longer, and they parted bad friends. In the course of two or three days Ebru put up d sign reading, "Cat Hill Nine and Half Miles," and as soon as SiI#s heard of Il he put up another rcading. "C#t HiII-Ten Miles," That made thin&s worse, and half dozen families wrIr mixed up in the quarrel. Almost every night in the year the two men met at the postoffice, and, though Jhry wouldn't notice each other, they had their ways Of hurting each others lrrngS. Silas would look around to Ezra Billings and giggle and chuckle and say:
 "Dti you hear that Cat Hill had moved inland a half mile, Ezra2 She used to be ten mileS from HOpeyille, but SEc moved up to nine and half 10 accommodate sartin smart folks"
 Eben would be hurt and want to get even. and he'd look at Jabez White and say;
 Heard about tbat escaped lunatic, Jabcz? They say he's measurln' the road from here to Cnt Hill with tow string and that It keeps him crazy be- cause he can't make but nine and a half miles of it"
 The two men never came to blows, but they never met without trying to hurt each others feelings. If one ia vorcd anything the other opposed 1t and they were contrary in politics, re- igion and all public improvements, One day Ebeu got buried In his well by a cave-ln. and though Silas helped to dig him out the chance was one to say:
 "NIebbe this narrow escape from death will make him turn to the truth in the future and admit it's ten miles 10 Cat Hill"
 It wasn't four weeks after that when Silas had a saw log roll over him, and as he lay there all 6attened out Eben came up and looked on him and said:
 'TIe seems to be a goner, but If the Lord lets him live It will be that De may take half q mile off tue distance to Cat HiIl and save bis soul from per dition."
 Folks thought the dispute might wear itself out in a year or two, but 1t didn't. It kept right on for twenty long years and never grew cold. Eben would have gone to Indiana to live, but he didn't want to leave Sllas behind to crow over him, and Silas would not go to Syracuse 10 run sawmlll for the same reason. At length Eben lay on his dying bed, and just the minute the doctor told him his case WAS hope less he sat up and said:
 "Then l want you to send for Sllaa Tompkins. I've got something l want to say to him before die" Silas didn't hang back about coming, and after he'd arrived and aaid ho was sorry Eben said to him:
 "Silas. how fur is 1t to Cat HIllT
 Its jest ten miles, Eben, jest ten"
 But I'm a dyin' man."
 "Yes, know. but its jest ten miiea."
 "Its only nine and a half, SilRs, and you are as big a fool as you was twsn- ty years ago!"
 "Ten milesm
 Nine and a halfF'
 Sias went away, and Eben died, and a year later SllaS was called to go. When he realized 1t h0 said to bis wife:
 Martha, don't lpt anybody bluR you when I'm gone. It's ten miles to Cat Hill, and you stick to 1t if you have to live on cold taters."
 I'll do 1t, Sias," she answered.
 In a day or two he was dead and buried, and as the usual crowd met at the pOstoffice in the evening the talk was all about the two men and their lifelong dispute. Some said one was right. and some said the other. There