THE LONG IiOD-POLE. 
A few miles from my father’s old farm, 
wrote Mr. C. P. Kimball, of Portland, sev¬ 
eral j^ears ago, there lived two well-to-do 
farmers, whom we will call John and Cal¬ 
vin. They were related by way of mar¬ 
riage, and were once great friends, but at 
the time my story commences they were 
most inveterate enemies. Their farms lay 
side by side on the country road, some few 
miles from the Androscoggin river. 
For many years they cut their hay in si¬ 
lence, each one mowing down to the divid¬ 
ing line with the precision of a master me¬ 
chanic. Each owned a hundred rods, and 
through a part of the meadow ran a brook, 
which, like most meadow brooks, was very 
crooked. 
John thought it would be an excellent 
plan to ditch his hundred rods, making the 
brook straight, and thereby saving much 
land and making his field more convenient 
and productive. So he contracted with a 
man named Redman to dig one hundred 
rods of ditch at one dollar per rod, begin¬ 
ning at the upper line of his farm and fol¬ 
lowing down the stream to Calvin’s line. 
Redman came, and with his two grown-up 
boys he went merrily to work; and John 
made him a rod-pole for the occasion; but 
being of a treacherous disposition, he made 
the measure a dozen inches longer than 
usual, that he might get a good return. 
In this he did not fail. 
Redman worked dilligently for some 
days. Calvin was interested in the opera¬ 
tion, and carefully watched the proceed¬ 
ings, often asking Redman how many rods 
he had accomplished, and always getting 
an honest reply. One day, as he leaned 
upon his scythe, he called: 
“I say, Redman, how many rods have 
you got along?” 
“Eighty.” 
“Eighty! well you're getting along fast.” 
Calvin saw at once he was too near his 
line for eighty rods, and musing upon the 
circumstance, he decided there must be a 
mistake. Knowing John so well, he began 
to suspect, as he considered the subject 
further, that John might be trying to de¬ 
fraud Redman; so dropping his scythe and 
crossing the line he sat down near the rod 
pole, and took off his hat to cool and rest 
himself. 
While so sitting he took occasion to 
measure the pole which John had made, 
and to his delight he found if was just one 
foot too long. Now here was fun for Cal¬ 
vin. Here was a chance to plague his 
enemy. Did he go tell Redman? No, not 
he. He laughed quietly in his sleeve, and 
waited quietly for Redman to finish his 
work. This was soon done, and the honest 
digger presented to John his bill for one 
hundred dollars, received his money, and 
went on his way. Very soon after this was 
accomplished, Calvin discovered, to his 
great surprise and indignation, of course, 
that some one had been trespassing on his 
meadow by digging a ditch about one 
hundred feet long , near the line which sep¬ 
arated his land from John’s. Sending to 
John he demanded if that ditch was dug 
by his authority. John, not suspecting 
any trouble, replied that it was. Receiving 
this answer, Calvin at once started for town 
and laid his case before the village lawyer, 
who at once saw that John* had committed 
a great wrong, known to the law as wil¬ 
fully trespassing upon the land of a neigh¬ 
bor. A writ was accordingly made 6ut 
and the deputy sheriff of the county, so 
much dreaded in those times, soon made 
his appearance before John, attached his 
property for the damage done to Calvin’s 
land, and summoned him to appear and 
show cause. John was astounded. He 
visited the field, and saw at a glance that 
the ditch was far over the line, and now 
for the first time the awful thought flashed 
upon him that in making his rod-pole one 
foot too long he had actually dug one 
hundred feet into Calvin’s land. He stood 
aghast, and then hastened to find the rod- 
pole that he might destroy the proof of his 
guilt, but it was not to be found. He could 
not understand where it had gone, but 
when he appeared in court, there that 
ghost of a rod-pole met his astonished view. 
How it came there none but Calvin knew, 
and he was silent. The case was soon 
tried, and a verdict of guilty was rendered, 
with nominal damage and costs of court. 
