100 RIVERBY 



up their heads, and say eh-h-h-hf then something 

 had to come.] 



" One phrase you used in your last letter * the 

 start from the stump' shows how locality governs 

 the illustrations we use. The start was not from 

 the stump here, quite the reverse. Nature made 

 the land ready for man's hand, and there were no 

 obstacles in the shape of stumps and stones to over- 

 come. Probably in the East a pine- stump fence is 

 not regarded as either particularly attractive or odd ; 

 but to me, when I first saw one in York State, it 

 was both. I had never even heard of the stumps 

 being utilized in that way. Seen for the first time, 

 there is something grotesque in the appearance of 

 those long arms forever reaching out after something 

 they never find, like a petrified octopus. Those 

 fences are an evidence of Eastern thrift, making 

 an enemy serve as a friend. I think they would 

 frighten our horses and cattle, used as they are to the 

 almost invisible wire fence. ' Worm ' fences were the 

 fashion at first. But they soon learned the necessity 

 of economizing wood. The people were extravagant, 

 too, in the outlay of power in tilling the soil, six- 

 teen yoke of oxen being thought absolutely necessary 

 to run a breaking- plo w ; and I have seen twenty 

 yoke used, requiring three men to drive and attend 

 the great clumsy plow. Every summer you might 

 see them in any direction, looking like ' thousand- 

 legged worms. ' They found out after a while that 

 two yoke answered quite as well. There is some- 

 thing very queer about the bowlders that are sup- 



