The Mishap of Squire Berry Todd. endo'm. The era of warfare has not ceased upon the earth, but if the principles for which our country has contended from its
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earliest history should universally prevail among men, the future of nations will be quite different from the past.
THE MISHAP OF SQUIRE BERRY TODD. BY JOHN JORDAN DOUGLASS, Of the North Carolina Bar. SQUIRE BERRY TODD, Magistrate and Notary Public, long, lank and loosejointed, was apparently a typical American citizen, bearing, as many declared, a close phvsical resemblance to the pictures of "Uncle Sam." But mentally and morally Squire Berry was an enigma—a rara avis. He invariably took the "off" side of every controversy in Pikeville—that is to say, when his official functions decreed not other wise. Living alone in his dingy, cob-webbed of fice, holding daily converse and nightly orgies with the venerable shades of legal lore, the eccentric squire spent his declining —or rather we should say his reclining— years. With his yellow goat-beard and wisp of golden hair, the squire flaunted defiance in the face of the old man of the snows. The squire's favorite pastime was fishing on the Sabbath, claiming that, according to the most ancient and honorable lexicograph ers, it was a holiday rather than a holy day, the "y" having been substituted to put a burdensome restriction on youth. A certain warm, sunshiny day in June, when the members of the Pikeville Bar were industriously and conscientiously singing or snoring off their sins, found the squire seated on his favorite log over "Crocodile Creek." He had landed (or logged) two terrapins and an eel, and lost, by entanglement with a raft of brush, a hefty cat-fish. A swarm of mosqui toes sang about the squire, and it became
necessary for him to give them an occasional peremptory flap with his broad-brimmed pal metto hat. He was just in the agony of one of these frantic flourishes when his cork bobbed and sank, as if a five-pounder had seized the hook. The squire instantly made a sudden downward sweep, and, in the dis traction of two things being -done at almost one and the same time, lost his equilibrium, and went backward into the creek like a monstrous, long-legged bull-frog. For a moment only a few big bubbles marked the spot where he had made his forcible entry, then the shiny bald spot on his head appeared, closely followed by bony arms and legs, and a furious splatter. Blow ing like a porpoise, the squire struck out for the nearest stretch of shore, and had almost gained that coveted terra firma when a rusty, evil-eyed alligator suddenly intervened. Though, from the vantage ground of the shore, the log-like creature had seemed per fectly harmless 'and inoffensive; the squire was not anxious to cultivate his acquaint ance in the water; so for once he did just what other men would have done—turned and made for the opposite shore, as ff an instanter capias had been issued for him. Imagine, therefore, his surprise and con sternation when another, and larger alligator rose directly in his liquid path. "A pretty kettle o' fish!" gasped the squire. "I know now how to appreciate the feelings of a wit ness when the lawyers get him betwixt the
