University of Virginia Library

LETTER III.

After Ploughshare's departure,
John Codline with his family kept
on their fishing and planting, and sometimes
went a hunting, so that they made
out to get a tolerable subsistence. John's
family grew, and he settled his sons as fast
as they became of age, to live by themselves;
and when any of his old acquaintance
came to see him, he bade them
welcome, and was their very good friend,

as long as they continued to be of his mind,
and no longer; for he was a very pragmatical
fort of a fellow, and loved to have
his own way in every thing. This was the
cause of a quarrel between him and Roger
Carrier, for it happened that Roger had
taken a fancy to dip his head into water,[1]
as the most effectual way of washing his
face, and thought it could not be made
so clean in any other way. John, who
used the common way of taking water in
his hand, to wash his face, was displeased
with Roger's innovation, and remonstrated
against it. The remonstrance had no
other effect, than to fix Roger's opinion
more firmly, and as a farther improvement
on his new plan, he pretended that
no person ought to have his face washed
till he was capable of doing it himself,
without any assistance from his parents.
John was out of patience with this addition,
and plumply told him, that if he did
not reform his principles and practice, he
would fine him, or flog him, or kick him
out of doors. These threats put Roger
on inventing other odd and whimsical opinions.
He took offence at the letter X,
and would have had it expunged from the
alphabet.[2] He would not do his duty at
a military muster, because there was an
X in the colours. After a while he began
to scruple the lawfulness of bearing
arms, and killing wild beasts. But, poor
fellow! the worst of all was, that being
seized with a shaking palsy,[3] which affected
every limb and joint of him, his
speech was so altered that he was unable to
pronounce certain letters and syllables as
he had been used to do. These oddities
and defects rendered him more and more
disagreeable to his old friend, who, however,
kept his temper as well as he could,
till one day, as John was saying a long
grace over his meat, Roger kept his hat
on the whole time. As soon as the ceremony
was over, John took up a case knife
from the table, and gave Roger a blow on
the ear with the broad side of it, then
with a rising stroke turned off his hat.
Roger said nothing, but taking up his hat
put it on again; at which John broke
out into such a passionate speech as this—
“You impudent scoundrel! is it come to
this! Have I not borne with your whims
and fidgets these many years, and yet
they grow upon you? Have I not talked
with you time after time, and proved to
you as plain as the nose in your face that
your notions are wrong? Have I not ordered
you to leave them off, and warned
you of the consequence, and yet you have
gone on from bad to worse? You began
with dipping your head into water, and
would have all the family do the same,
pretending there was no other way of
washing the face. You would have had
the children go dirty all their days, under
pretence that they were not able to wash
their own faces, and so they must have
looked like the pigs till they were grown
up. Then you would talk your own
balderdash linguo, thee and thou, and nan
forfooth—and now you must keep your
hat on when I am at my devotions, and I
suppose would be glad to have the whole
family do the same! There is no bearing
with you any longer—so now—hear me,
I give you fair warning, if you don't mend
your manners, and retract your errors,
and promise reformation, I'll kick you
out of the house. I'll have no such refractory
fellows here: I came into this forest
for reformation, and reformation I will
have.”

“Friend John (said Roger) dost not
thou remember when thou and I lived together
in friend Bull's family, how hard
thou didst think it to be compelled to look
on thy book all the time that the hooded
chaplain was reading the prayers, and how
many knocks and thumps thou and I had
for offering to use our liberty, which we

thought we had a right to? Didst thou
not come hitherunto for the sake of enjoying
thy liberty, and did not I come to
enjoy mine? Wherefore then dost thou
assume to deprive me of the right which
thou claimest for thyself?”

“Don't tell me (answered John) of
right and of liberty—you have as much
liberty as any man ought to have. You
have liberty to do right, and no man ought
to have liberty to do wrong.”

“Who is to be judge (replied Roger)
what is right or what is wrong? Ought not
I to judge for myself? or, Thinkest thou
it is thy place to judge for me?”

“Who is to be judge (said John) why
the book is to be judge—and I have proved
by the book over and over again that
you are wrong, and therefore you are
wrong, and you have no liberty to do any
thing but what is right.”

“But friend John (said Roger) who
is to judge whether thou hast proved my
opinions or conduct to be wrong—thou
or I?”

“Come, come, (said John) not so close
neither—none of your idle distinctions: I
say you are in the wrong, I have proved
it, and you know it; you have sinned against
your own conscience, and therefore you
deserve to be cut off as an incorrigible
heretic.”

“How dost thou know (said Roger)
that I have sinned against my own conscience?
Canst thou search the heart?”

At this John was so enraged that he
gave him a smart kick on the posteriors,
and bade him be gone out of his house,
and off his lands, and called after him to
tell him, that if ever he should catch him
there again he would knock his brains
out. Roger, having experienced the logic
of the foot, applied to the feat of honor,

walked off, with as much meekness as human
nature is capable of, on such occasions;
and having travelled as far as he
supposed to be out of the limits of John's
lease, laid himself down by the side of a
clear rivulet, which flowed down a hill;
here he composed himself to sleep, and
on his awaking found several bears about
him, but none offered him any insult.
Upon which he said, and minuted it down
in his pocket book, “Surely the beasts of
the wilderness are in friendship with me,
and this is designed by Providence[4] as my
resting place; here, therefore, will I pitch
my tabernacle, and here shall I dwell
more in peace, though surrounded by
bears and wolves, than when in the midst
of those whom I counted my brethren.”

On this spot he built an hut, and having
taken possession, made a visit to his old
master Bull, who gave him a lease of the

place, with an island or two in an adjoining
cove of the great lake, and recommended
to him a wife, by whom he had a
few children; but his plantation was chiefly
increased by the flocking of strangers
to him; for he was a very hospitable
man, and made it a rule in his family not
to refuse any who should come, whether
lame or blind, short or tall, whether they
had two eyes or one, whether they squinted
or stammered, or limped, or had any
other natural defect or impediment; it
was another rule that every one should
bear with the infirmities of his neighbours,
and help one another as they were
able. Once as I was passing through
Roger's plantation I saw one man carrying
another on his shoulders, which, at
first, I thought a very odd fight; upon
coming up to them, I perceived that the
lower one was blind, and the upper one
was lame, so as they had but one pair of
eyes, and one pair of legs between them,
the lame man availed himself of the blind
man's legs, and he of the other's eyes, and
both went along very well together. I
remember also, that as I passed along, the
fences were in some places made of very
crooked, knotty rails; but the crooks and
knots were made to fay into each other so
cleverly, that the fences were as tight as if
they had been made of stuff sawed ever so
even; a circumstance which convinced
me that very crooked things might be put
together, to advantage, if proper pains
were taken.

When John Codline had settled the
controversy with Roger, by kicking him
out of doors, he began to look about him
to see what his neighbours were doing.
Having found a young fellow on his north
eastern limits, who had come thither without
his knowledge or permission, he took
it into his head to survey the extent of
his grounds. The words of his lease were
rather ambiguous, and by virtue thereof
he thought it convenient to extend his

claims over the lands on which Robert
Lumber (for that was the name of the
young fellow) had settled.[5] It seems that
Bob had been sent by some of John Bull's
family to erect a fishing stage on the borders
of the lake, and the lawyer who had
the care of the forest not being acquainted
so much as he ought to have been with
the situation of the lands, or having no
knowledge of the art of surveying, had
made out a lease which lapped over Codline's;
so that each of them had a claim
upon the same land. In some circumstances
this might have been deemed unfortunate,
but as it happened it proved
lucky for poor Bob—his employers had
left him in the lurch, and he would have
starved to death if John had not taken
him under his wing and sent him provisions
to keep him alive. He also lent him
a hand to clear up the bushes, and furnished
him with materials to build a saw
mill. This set Bob on his own legs, and
he proved a sturdy faithful fellow. He
was of great service to John in killing
bears and wolves that infested his plantation;
and when he himself was in danger,
John lent him powder, shot, and
flints, and sent hands to help him, and in
so doing he served himself as well as his
neighbour, which was no breach of morality.
Thus they lived pretty peaceably
together, till after a while Bob's old owners
found the land was grown good for
something, and then (without paying
John for his assistance in making it so)
appealed to Mr. Bull, and got it away,
and took a large slice of John's land into
the bargain.[6] This was a matter which
stuck in John's throat a great while, and
if I am rightly informed he has hardly
swallowed it yet. He did not think himself
fairly dealt by, though he had all Peregrine
Pickle's land put into a new lease
which Bull gave him. To be short, John
Codline and John Bull never heartily
loved one another; they were in their
temper and disposition too much alike;
each was eternally jealous of the other:
and this jealousy was kept alive by a variety
of incidents which it would be too
tedious to enumerate. One of them,
however, was of so singular a nature that
I think it deserves to be remembered. It
was this. Old Lewis had erected a fishing
stage and ware house[7] on the north
east, which interfered with Codline's favorite
employment. Without consulting
his old Master Bull, or waiting for his
advice or orders, Jack sent a bailiff with
a writ of intrusion to the fishermen and
began a suit in law; Mr. Bull hearing of
it, was glad to take advantage of the circumstance
and fee council in the cause,
which finally went in his favour. But
though the issue of the cause was of so
much advantage to him; yet he ever after
looked upon Codline as a forward,
saucy fellow, for running on that errand
before he was sent; and there were not
wanting persons who were continually
buzzing in his ear, to keep a good look
out on that impudent jackanapes, or he
would soon begin to think himself as good
a man as his master.