FENCED IN


On the 26th, when I reached the station at Exeter, I found Thompson and
the gray team just starting for the farm with the second load of wire
fencing. I had ordered fifty-six rolls of Page's woven wire fence, forty
rods in each roll. This fence cost me seventy cents a rod, $224 a mile,
or $1568 for the seven miles. Add to this $37 for freight, and the total
amounted to $1605 for the wire to fence my land. I got this facer as I
climbed to the seat beside Thompson. I did not blink, however, for I had
resolved in the beginning to take no account of details until the 31st
day of December, and to spend as much on the farm in that time as I
could without being wasteful. I did not care much what others thought. I
felt that at my age time was precious, and that things must be rushed as
rapidly as possible.

I was glad of this slow ride with Thompson, for it gave me an
opportunity to study him. I wondered then and afterward why a man of his
general intelligence, industry, and special knowledge of the details of
farming, should fail of success when working for himself. He knew ten
times as much about the business as I did, and yet he had not succeeded
in an independent position. Some quality, like broadness of mind or
directness of purpose, was lacking, which made him incapable of carrying
out a plan, no matter how well conceived. He was like Hooker at
Chancellorsville, whose plan of campaign was perfect, whose orders were
carried out with exactness, whose army fell into line as he wished, and
whose enemy did the obvious thing, yet who failed terribly because the
responsibility of the ultimate was greater than he could bear. As second
in command, or as corps leader, he was superb; in independent command he
was a disastrous failure.