several generations and showed no
signs of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not
the Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to
be an accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle
any more than would fire and water.

The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous.
They were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The
Draytons, on the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived
to a round old age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast
with the briefer span of the Hampdens.

"Their tempers burn them out," the Major used to say of the Hampdens.

Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
years.

Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. "It is
as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir," once said Major Drayton,
On the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its
banks, tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a
new channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and
loamy soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone
amounted to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no
one doubted that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that
his father would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling
hills and extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally
awarded to Judge Hampden.

As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along
the entire boundary line between the two places. With these double
fences, there could hardly be peace between the two families; for
neither owner ever saw the two lines running side by side without at
once being reminded of his neighbor's obstinacy and--of his own.

Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and
the Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
proposition from a "church dressing" or a "sewing society meeting" to a
political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
every discussion.

It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each oth