attempt climbing it, unless pursued by a bull or a sheriff, as the
upper ends of the sticks were very sharp and about as convenient to
sit upon as a row of harrow-teeth.

It reminded me of a fence in an American village where I once lived,
that an enterprising fruit-grower had put around his orchard,--a
structure of upright pickets, and each picket armed with a nail in the
top. One night four individuals bent on stealing apples, were
confronted by the owner and a bull-dog and forced to surrender or leap
the fence. Three of them were "treed" by the dog; the fourth sprang
over the fence, but left the seat of his trousers and the rear section
of his shirt, the latter bearing in indelible ink the name of the
wearer. The circumstantial evidence was so strong against him that he
did not attempt an alibi, and he was unable to sit down for nearly a
fortnight.

[Illustration: TAIL PIECE--THE NET]




CHAPTER XIV.


I took the first opportunity to enter a Goldee house and study the
customs of the people. A Goldee dwelling for permanent habitation has
four walls and a roof. The sides and ends are of hewn boards or small
poles made into a close fence, which is generally double and has a
space six or eight inches wide filled with grass and leaves. Inside
and out the dwelling is plastered with mud, and the roofs are thatch