vor of them, and ours in favor of us. The one said he had
law on his side; the other, that he had proscription and possession,
length of time and usage.

"The two squires then fought a challenge upon the head of it, and what
was more singular, upon the disputed spot itself; the one standing on
their side, the other on ours; for it was just twelve paces every way.
Their friend was a small, light man, with legs like drumsticks; the
other was a large, able-bodied gentleman, with a red face and hooked
nose. They exchanged two shots, only one of which--the second--took
effect. It pastured upon their landlord's spindle leg, on which he held
it out, exclaiming, that while he lived he would never fight another
challenge with his antagonist, 'because,' said he, holding out his own
spindle shank, 'the man who could hit that could hit anything.'

[Illustration: PAGE 725-- The man who could hit that could hit anything]

"We then were advised, by an attorney, to go to law with them; and they
were advised by another attorney to go to law with us: accordingly,
we did so, and in the course of eight or nine years it might have been
decided, but just at the legal term approximated in which the decision
was to be announced, the river divided itself with mathematical
exactitude on each side of the island. This altered the state and law of
the question in toto; but, in the meantime, both we and the O'Hallaghans
were nearly fractured by the expenses. Now during the lawsuit we usually
houghed and mutilated each other's cattle, according as they trespassed
the premises. This brought on the usual concomitants of various battles,
fought and won by both sides, and occasioned the lawsuit to be dropped;
for we found it a mighty, inconvanient matter to fight it out both ways;
by the same a-token that I think it a proof of stultity to go to law
at all at all, as long as a person is able to take it into his own
management. For the only incongruity in the matter is this: that, in
the one case, a set of lawyers have the law in their hands, and, in the
other, that you have it in your own; that's the only difference, and
'tis easy knowing where the advantage lies.

"We, however, paid the most of the expenses, and would have _ped_ them
all with the greatest integrity, were it not that our attorney, when
about to issue an execution against our property, happened somehow to be
shot, one evening, as he returned home from a dinner which was given
by him tha