42 FARMING IT 



smeared with dirt, and the other was seamed with 

 scratches where maniacal pullets had deftly 

 dealt me glancing blows, my hand was bleeding, 

 and my new hat ruined. 



However, I had determined to become a farmer, 

 and all my unpleasant experiences were in a way 

 valuable, and would doubtless bear fruit. In some 

 ways farming had not proved exactly profitable, 

 but it was far more exciting than I had ever 

 dreamed. 



For the week following the chase of the game- 

 cock, and the tragic death of our fine stock bird, 

 I was quite closely confined to the office with an 

 epidemic of legal business that broke loose. It 

 seemed as if almost every third man I met was 

 tormented with an unconquerable desire to quar- 

 rel about a right of way, to institute criminal pro- 

 ceedings for the collection of a civil claim, or to 

 file a libel for divorce on untenable grounds. 



This tried me severely, for while such business 

 is seldom remunerative, and needs to be sorted 

 out with the greatest care, the legal transaction 

 of the best of it, to say the least, adds nothing to 

 one's reputation either as a lawyer or a gentle- 

 man, which terms should be, but are not always, 

 synonymous. 



Again, clients in such classes of business know 

 so much more than their legal advisers, and are 

 so tenacious of their opinions, that in many cases 



