"Doing a great job. Only one tub more! Four off
and one to come."
"But, David!" the old Squire began in considerable astonishment.
"Yes. Sure. It takes time. But I know Aunt Ruth is an awful neat woman,
and I determined to do a full job!"
He had been taking a bath in each of the five tubs in succession. That
was Barker humor.
CHAPTER XI
WHEN WE WALKED THE TOWN LINES
It was some time the following week, I think, that the old Squire looked
across to us at the breakfast table and said, "Boys, don't you want to
walk the town lines for me? I think I shall let you do it this time--and
have the fee," he added, smiling.
The old gentleman was one of the selectmen of the town that year; and an
old law, or municipal regulation, required that one or more of the
selectmen should walk the town lines--follow round the town boundaries
on foot--once a year, to see that the people of adjoining towns, or
others, were not trespassing. The practice of walking the town lines is
now almost or quite obsolete, but it was a needed precaution when
inhabitants were few and when the thirty-six square miles of a township
consisted mostly of forest.
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