“No—Mr. Atterson never said anything to me about giving a neighbor water-rights,” the lawyer said. “Indeed, Mr. Atterson was not a man likely to give anything away—until he had got through with it himself.
“Dickerson once tried to buy a right at that corner of the Atterson pasture; but he and the old gentleman couldn't come to terms.
“Dickerson has no water on his place, saving his well and his rights on the river. It makes it bad for him, I suppose; but I do not advise Mrs. Atterson to let that fence stand. Give that sort of a man an inch and he'll take a mile.”
“But what shall I do?”
“That's professional advice, young man,” returned the lawyer, “smiling. But I will give it to you without charge.
“Merely go and pull the new posts up and replace them on the line. If Dickerson interferes2 with you, come to me and we'll have him bound over before the Justice of the Peace.
“You represent Mrs. Atterson and are within her rights. That's the best I can tell you.”
Now, Hiram was not desirous of starting any trouble—legal or otherwise—with a neighbor; but neither did he wish to see anybody take advantage of his old boarding mistress. He knew that, beside farming for her, he would probably have to defend her from many petty annoyances4 like the present case.
So he bought the wire he needed for repairs, a few other things that were necessary, and drove back to the farm, determined5 to go right ahead and await the consequences.
Among his purchases was an axe6. In the workshop on the farm was a fairly good grindstone; only the treadle was broken and Hiram had to repair this before he could make much headway in grinding the axe. Henry Pollock lived too far away to be called upon in such a small emergency.
Being obliged to work alone sharpens one's wits. The young farmer had to resort to shifts and expedients7 on every hand, as he went along.
The day before, while wandering in the wood, he had marked several white oaks of the right size for posts. He would have preferred cedars8, of course; but those trees were scarce on the Atterson tract—and they might be needed for some more important job later on.
When he came up to the house at noon to feed the stock and make his own frugal9 meal in the farm house kitchen, the posts were cut. After dinner he harnessed the horse to the farm wagon10, and went down for the posts, taking the rolls of wire along to drop beside the fence.
The horse was a steady, willing creature, and seemed to have no tricks. He did not drive very well on the road, of course; but that wasn't what they needed a horse for.
Driving was a secondary matter.
Hiram loaded his posts and hauled them to the pasture, driving inside the fence line and dropping a post wherever one had rotted out.
Yet posts that had rotted at the ground were not so easy to draw out, as the young farmer very well knew, and he set his wits to work to make the removal of the old posts easy of accomplishment11.
He found an old, but strong, carpenter's horse in the shed, to act as a fulcrum12, and a seasoned bar of hickory as a lever. There was never an old farm yet that didn't have a useful heap of junk, and Hiram had already scratched over Uncle Jeptha's collection of many years' standng.
He found what he sought in a wrought13 iron band some half inch in thickness with a heavy hook attached to it by a single strong link. He fitted this band upon the larger end of the hickory bar, wedging it tightly into place.
A short length of trace chain completed his simple post-puller. And he could easily carry the outfit14 from place to place as it was needed.
When he found a weak or rotting post, he pulled the staples15 that held the strands16 of wire to it and and then set the trestle alongside the post. Resting the lever on the trestle, he dropped the end link of the chain on the hook, looped the chain around the post, and hooked on with another link. Bearing down on the lever brought the post out of the ground every time.
With a long-handled spade Hiram cleaned out the old holes, or enlarged them, and set his new posts, one after the other. He left the wires to be tightened17 and
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