MY NEIGHBORS FIELD 



the law by the forelock and was adjudged 

 possession of the field. Eighteen days 

 later Roeder arrived on snowshoes, both 

 feet frozen, and the money in his pack. 

 In the long suit at law ensuing, the field 

 fell to Ruffin, that clever one-armed lawyer 

 with the tongue to wile a bird out of the 

 bush, Connor's counsel, and was sold by 

 him to my neighbor, whom from envying 

 his possession I call Naboth. 



Curiously, all this human occupancy of 

 greed and mischief left no mark on the 

 field, but the Indians did, and the unthink- 

 ing sheep. Round its corners children 

 pick up chipped arrow points of obsidian, 

 scattered through it are kitchen middens 

 and pits of old sweat - houses. By the 

 south corner, where the campoodie stood, 

 is a single shrub of "hoopee" (LyciumAn- 

 dersonii), maintaining itself hardly among 

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