s; and when he died, it was
merely sprinkled with gray. When his private accounts were examined
after his decease, they revealed the fact that he had secretly expended
hundreds of dollars in paying the debts of poor people, or redeeming
their furniture when it was attached.

But though many dear ones dropped away from his side, as Friend Isaac
moved onward in his pilgrimage, many remained to sustain and cheer him.
Among his wife's brothers, his especial friend was John Tatum, who lived
in the vicinity of his native village. This worthy man had great
sympathy with the colored people, and often sheltered the fugitives whom
his brother-in-law had rescued. He was remarkable for his love of peace;
always preferring to suffer wrong rather than dispute. The influence of
this pacific disposition upon others was strikingly illustrated in the
case of two of his neighbors. They were respectable people, in easy
circumstances, and the families found much pleasure in frequent
intercourse with each other. But after a few years, one of the men
deemed that an intentional affront had been offered him by the other.
Instead of good-natured frankness on the occasion, he behaved in a
sullen manner, which provoked the other, and the result was that
eventually neither of them would speak when they met. Their fields
joined, and when they were on friendly terms, the boundary was marked
by a fence, which they alternately repaired. But when there was feud
between them, neither of them was willing to mend the other's fence. So
each one built a fence for himself, leaving a very narrow strip of land
between, which in process of time came to be generally known by the name
of Devil's Lane, in allusion to the bad temper that produced it. A brook
formed another portion of the boundary between their farms, and was
useful to both of them. But after they became enemies, if a freshet
occurred, each watched an opportunity to turn the water on the other's
land, by which much damage was mutually done. They were so much occupied
with injuring each other in every possible way, that they neglected
their farms and grew poorer and poorer. One of them became intemperate;
and everything about their premises began to wear an aspect of
desolation and decay. At last, one of the farms was sold to pay a
mortgage, and John Tatum, who was then about to be married, concluded to
purchase it. Many people warned him of the trouble he would have with a
quarrelsome and intemperate