OUR LEAGUE OF NEIGHBOURS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19199, 16 June 1924, Page 10

OUR LEAGUE OF NEIGHBOURS

“ What we really want,” said my nextdoor friend JinLon, who hud come to tiie fence to criticise my bonlire, and remained to gossip, “is a League of Neighbours. " There are so many little causes of friction among a group of people all living close together. Sometimes they balance one another, as when your bonfire the other day nearly choked me when 1 was trying to paint the shed, and my children replied by throwing over a ball that broke a pane of glass in your greenhouse. That squared the account, and there was nothing more to say. ’ I tried to get in a protest that my broken glass was heavy compensation lor merely choking him with smoke, but he was too thoroughly in his stride. “My idea," he' continued, “would he to award bud marks for each annoyance we cause a neighbour, reckon them up at the end of the week, and then make the man who has most bad marks responsible for, say, the thirst of the other members of the league at the next meeting. ’ —Working Well.—

It worked well for a time. Judson had three bad marks one week for letting his gramophone go full rip when my wite had a headache. I had three for forgetting to dose bis greefihouse on a frosty night when I had promised to do so while he was kept late in town. But my neighbour on the other side had six, for twice, sending a ball over from his hard court, and further damaging my unlucky greenhouse. The founder of the league agreed with me that everything was. going well. V\ e sought new members, and had some idea of making penalties heavier. But it all broke down on a recent cold, dark night. We had all complained about being kept awake by the barking dogs just outside our houses. No one claimed the dogs; we all declared that ours were always safely chained up or shut in. But the nuisance contained. Judson, our man of ideas, suggested a little vigilance committee to sit up late in his house and dash out as soon as the noise began, so that the offending dogs could be identified. The proposal was so good—Judson’s whisky and cigars are beyond reproach—that -we all volunteered to sit up with him ' —How the League Ended.— The time passed pleasantly, and we were all sorry when an outburst of barking about 2 a.m. called ns to action. However, We sallied forth bravely, Judson leading the way. I saw him with a stick among a group of dogs just outside his gate, and then I heard an angry, “ James Henry, what are you doing here? ” Now, James Henry was his own dog, and should have been asleep in his kennel. But the Vigilance Committee found that he had slipped out of his collar, collected some dogs that run loose on a farm near by, and was holding these nightly singsongs. That broke up the league. We all insisted that Judson had offended so grievously that it would take months to work off Ins fines. He retorted that fools like ourselves were impossible in any league. And now eve once more settle our troubles individually, or forget them, just in the old way.