We verily believe he knew every bush-
heap and stonepile on this and his neighbor's line.
It had been
evident from his conversation that there had been some changing
of stone piles and many disputes in regard to their right
location. To save a certain strip of land he "done bought eleven
acres more or less, then he goes down on the other side and buys
twenty-nine acres more or less, twenty-eight for sure." We soon
became fairly familiar with the lay of the land over which this
man held ever a watchful eye while he overlooked constantly the
bigger, better things of life. With such accuracy of observation
of minute details, looking inwardly and not outwardly, what a
character would have been his. As far as we could discern this
land was mostly stone piles and bushes, with growth of evergreen
and deciduous trees in some places not worth guarding.
To look at this policeman of Old Massanutten you would never
surmise that he ever had a worry in all his life, but he told us
that he had one. This even to us was not an imaginary one as he
had seriously contemplated moving down in the valley some day.
He said "'a rolling stone gathers no moss,' neither does a
settin' hen grow fat, but, I'll have to find a place to set for
I'm gettin' old." We thought he had set too much already. "I'd
as leave move a thousand miles as one hundred yards.
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