Surface W ater 
save where a gap was cut out for a gateway. A 
“rustic” bridge across the ditch united the villa 
grounds to the road outside. 
The bridge was not unneeded. One wet 
autumn the neglected ditch below it filled up. 
The water overflowed road and bridge too; and 
the tenant of the villa complained to the Distri@ 
Council. 
And one day, as John Smith was proceeding 
to his field opposite the villa, he beheld men at 
work pecking up the road. 
“What be ye got at now?” said he. 
The men explained that they were laying-in a 
drain, by order of the council’s surveyor, to carry 
the waste water off into the ditch on Mr. Smith’s 
side of the road. 
“Well,” says he, “ you may go on and I can’t 
hinder ye. Butassoon as you ’ve laid your drain 
in, I shall stop ’n up with a turf at my end.” 
“Then ’ten’t no good our goin’ on?” 
“That’s as you please. But I shall stop ’n 
up, and what’s more, I shall see as he’s kept 
Stopped.” 
But the men had to finish where they had 
opened; so they went on with their work, 
promising, however, to tell the surveyor. 
Some days later Mr. Smith met the surveyor 
on the spot, and was civilly questioned: “* What’s 
your objection to this, Mr. Smith?” 
55 
