Summerfield / or, Life on a Farm

by Day Kellogg Lee

Those early and eager pioneers of new countries, the lawyers, found their way to Summerfield; that is, two or three unruly members of the profession, while yet Squire Fabens held the wand of peace. They had not been long there, however, before they joined Troffater, Adonijah Nixon, and Simon Bogle, to oppose his administration; and made very desperate efforts to elect another in his stead.

As for the lawyers, we are not at all surprised by their opposition. He destroyed their business, and they played as checks and interruptions of that harmony to which his life was tuned. And as for the troublesome little bandy Troffater, his ill-will was expected, as a real compliment to the wisdom and justice of the magistrate. We have heard of an Irishman at Donnybrook Fair, who was likely to be disappointed of his addicted battle, finding no one to answer his challenge; and who cried to the crowd, "I'll thank any gentleman, just once to tread on the tail o' my coat, that my sport may begin!" A similar character was Tilly Troffater, and never more thankful was he than when opportunity encouraged his quarrelsome mood; and never more amazed or provoked at the manner in which the laws were administered, than when his broils were suppressed while rising, and his litigations closed as soon as he began them.

The hardest thing, under heaven, did it seem for a lawsuit to make any progress, while Matthew Fabens was Justice of the Peace, in Summerfield. Pestilent Tilly was always scheming to provoke such evils, and was always threatening his neighbors with a lawsuit. Sometimes he would come post-haste for a warrant, or summons, or attachment; again, he would be in hot distress to swear his life was in danger, or his squalid character was at stake; or his neighbor's pigs had rooted up a few weeds in his garden, or some mischievous boy had thrown a stone through a paper pane of his window; or mounted his most personable scare-crow on his chimney-top, arrayed in a potato necklace, and holding a dead snake in hand; or he had secrets to disclose which would reveal astounding villanies, that threatened the peace of the town.

But it had always been his misfortune to fail of his designs. Not a scrap of a warrant or other process could he obtain. Not the lisp of a word or oath would the good Squire take from his lying lips. "Get rid of your passion; go home, and work, and help me keep the peace," was Fabens' reply to all quarrelsome fellow-citizens.

And yet, the happy fortune to sustain his long administration, without having to confess a case of law had been brought to trial before him, was not reserved for Squire Fabens. Numberless little difficulties had been dragged into notice by three or four uncomfortable bodies, who sought the excitement of a quarrel to rally the lagging pleasures of indolence; and a few of these demanded his attention. But he had ever found it for the good of the parties in trouble, as for the general welfare, and his own satisfaction, to calm the raging waters of passion, by counsel, kind and wise; reconcile the antagonists, and bring them to an amicable peace, without the sifting of testimony, and the labors of litigation.

XII.

A LAWSUIT.

At length a crime was committed in Summerfield, which a summary process could not despatch, and a sense of duty impelled Squire Fabens to permit it to be tried before him, that the offender might receive his punishment, and be set forth as an example of warning to all evil-doers. One afternoon in August, when farmers had finished their wheat harvest, and were enjoying a few days of relaxation before seeding their fallows with winter grain, Simon Bogle came all in a hot hurry to the Justice, for a warrant against Jared Sculpin, and—"Are you certain," asked Fabens, after hearing his long and incoherent story, and learning the name of the accused neighbor, "are you certain that your log-chain was not mislaid, or dropped in some place where the leaves might have covered it? This is a very serious charge for neighbor to bring against neighbor. You ought to be very certain that it was stolen, Mr. Bogle, before you accuse any one."

"Certain!" cried Bogle; "I couldn't be more so, I guess, if I'd seen it took, with my own eyes, I guess. The neighbors all talk about it too, I guess. And there's—"

"But there ought to be no guess-work in this case. Are you not wronging Mr. Sculpin, to charge him with the theft, unless some competent witness will say he saw him take it, or you can prove the chain found in his possession is yours, while he fails to show, in defence, that you did not lend it to him?"