“Then I must needs get off my horse, lad,” said the stranger, “and wait his return. Dost think a feed of corn could be found for my horse? He has carried me four-and-twenty miles this morning, and needs a rest.”
I handed the horse over to one of our lads, and conducted the stranger into the house, where he was received by my mother, to whom he made a very polite bow.
“Master Dale, mistress, is not at home, I understand, but will return anon. With your permission I will rest myself until he comes, for I cannot go away until I have seen him. I am a sheriff’s officer, and have a writ to serve upon him at the suit of one Rupert Watson.”
So it seemed that our enemy was going to have the law of us after all.
VII
Of Our Coming from York
My mother, womanlike, was somewhat disturbed at the idea of having aught to do with law matters, and she looked exceedingly grave when the sheriff’s officer announced his mission. But my father, coming home a little later, made light of the matter, and bade the man sit down and eat and drink, and conversed with him on the weather and similar matters, so that the bearer of Rupert Watson’s writ presently departed much fortified in mind and body.
“It is the best thing that could have happened,” said my father, talking to my mother about the matter, “for now the question will be decided and done with. If the law says the land is mine, mine it will be forever; if ’tis Rupert Watson’s, then the law will say so. And perhaps the old enmity between us will die out. I have no wish to live in strife with any man.”
“For all that,” said my mother, “you will never be friendly with Rupert Watson. For he has a bad heart, and is a cruel man, and with such I am sure you will never agree.”
“Friends, perhaps not,” answered my father. “But it might come to us exchanging a good day like Christians, instead of riding by on the high-road as if we were sworn enemies. However, if this matter be settled, our children may live at peace, and even friendship, if Rupert and I never do.”
Now, I knew that could never be, because Dennis had sworn that he would hate me forever, and I knew he meant it. Nothing, I felt sure, would ever make Dennis forgive me for thrashing him, and I, on my part, felt no desire to make friends with him. I had an instinctive dislike for Dennis, and felt that oil and water would mix sooner than he and I. However, I said nothing of this to my father or mother.
When Jacob Trusty heard of the law proceedings, he exercised much thought upon the matter, and often discussed it with me of a Saturday afternoon.
“That the land is ours,” said Jacob Trusty, “is certain, and yet it would sore puzzle and moyther my head to give good reason for thinking so. Thy great-grandfather and thy grandfather, William, always claimed that land, and thy father claimed it after them. But then the grandfather of this black-faced Watson likewise claimed it. Wherefore the difficulty was the same in those days. Ah! many a bloody head there hath been over that strip of meadow-land. For sixty years ago either Dale or Watson was forever driving cattle on it; and if it were a Dale, then a Watson came forth and drove them off; and if it were a Watson, he had to reckon with a Dale; and first there were words, and then there were blows, and then there was a stiff fight, and if there were no heads broken, ’twas not for want of hard hitting. Howbeit, in thy grandfather’s time and in thy father’s matters have been quiet and peaceable.”
“Shall we win the day, do you think, Jacob?” I asked.
“Nay, lad, who can tell? One thing I can tell thee without doubt, and that is, that the men who will profit by this matter are the lawyers. Whether thy father win or lose, or Rupert Watson lose or win, the lawyers will fill their pockets. Wherefore, William, boy, as thou goest through the world, mark one thing, namely, that whenever two men fall out, there will always be a third man whose interest it will be to keep up the strife. For while John and Thomas are disputing as to which of them shall have the egg, Richard comes up and eats it out of hand. Such is law, out of which thou wilt do well to keep.”
Nevertheless, it was necessary that my father should employ the services of an attorney, and he therefore placed his case in the hands of Lawyer Hook, who had managed all his difficult matters for many years. Mr. Hook was considerably exercised in his own mind over this dispute ’twixt the Dales and Watsons, for he could not lay his hands on anything which served to decide the matter in our favour. Neither was he able to see how judge and jury could settle the matter. “For indeed, Master Dale,” said he, having ridden over one afternoon to talk with my father, “the evidence for and against is as conflicting as any I ever knew. You say on your side that your family hath always claimed the land, and you bring half a score of ancient gaffers and gammers to say the same. Now, Rupert Watson saith that it hath always been matter of certainty in his family that the land is theirs, and he too bringeth various old folk to
