Free On Kingdom Mountain by Howard Frank Mosher Page A

heard it said that we Kingdomers don’t need to travel the world because everyone worth knowing will eventually come to the Kingdom? Were you aware that in 1904 President Teddy Roosevelt came to Kingdom County?”
    â€œEveryone knows that tale, Ira,” Miss Jane said. “Render your verdict.”
    Unperturbed, Judge Allen continued his anecdote. “Teddy traveled here to testify in person, in a libel suit that he was bringing against the
Kingdom County Monitor.
Old editor James Kinneson had called Teddy a ‘porky flatlander’ in the pages of the
Monitor
and somehow Teddy caught wind of it and came rampaging up to the Kingdom to join combat. The courtroom was packed. The president said he’d plead guilty to being a bit on the rotund side, but by jingo, he was no flatlander. T.R. pounded the plaintiff’s table with his fist and said he’d hunted mountain lions in the Rockies with Zane Grey and written books on the Adirondacks and that he was a country boy and a mountain boy born and bred, and no man jack in the universe could prove differently. Everybody liked T.R. and was highly indignant that Editor K had calumniated him. The jury wasn’t out five minutes. In they paraded, finding for the president. There was no doubt, they said, that he’d been libeled.” Judge Allen glanced around to be sure everyone was listening. “Then they fined Editor Kinneson five cents. The price, at the time, of a copy of the
Monitor.
”
    The judge continued, “In the case of Miss Jane Hubbell Kinneson versus Eben Kinneson and the Town of Kingdom Common, I find the town liable for damages to Miss Kinneson’s hillside amounting to five hundred dollars’ worth of timber.”
    For a moment it appeared to Henry as though Miss Jane had
adjudicated herself right out of five hundred dollars. But the judge wasn’t finished.
    â€œAlso,” he said, “I find the Town of Kingdom Common and the Great North Woods Pulp and Paper Company liable for causing significant damage to Kingdom Mountain Burn and the Upper East Branch of the Kingdom River, and especially to the spawning bed of Miss Jane’s char. Therefore, I rule that under the personal supervision of Eben Kinneson and the selectmen of Kingdom Common, the Great North Woods Pulp and Paper Company will fully restore the stream and river to their previous condition and reforest the Gate to Canada. As for the right of way for the Connector, it’s the ruling of this court that the Connector can go out around Kingdom Mountain, as sensible people who wish to travel to Canada have been doing for the past two hundred years. That road is not to impinge on Miss Jane’s property.”
    â€œObjection!” Eben Kinneson Esquire cried out. “Objection, Your Honor. We will pay for the timber and have a crew replant the hillside. But this court has no legal authority to impose any personal conditions on me or on the town fathers. Or to rule on the right of way.”
    Down came Judge Allen’s gavel. “Oh, yes it does, in both cases,” the judge said. “I hereby stipulate that the reforestation and the stocking will be conducted under the direct supervision of the owner of the Great North Woods Pulp and Paper, Inc., Eben Kinneson. Moreover, I intend to be there to volunteer my own services. Other volunteers will apply directly to Miss Jane Hubbell Kinneson of Kingdom Mountain. The work will begin tomorrow at eight A.M. , with a one-hundred-dollar-a-day fine for every day of delay. As for the right of way, and the prerogatives of the court, this is the district court of Kingdom County. It has complete jurisdiction over any and all monkey-shines and shenanigans of questionable legality in the county.
You’re entitled to appeal the decision, Eben, if you and your clients don’t like it. I, for one, don’t want that highway anywhere near those blue-backed char or Miss Jane’s mountain. Eight