An official demarcation line ran through the blackberry patch, though the family had never seen it. (demarcation: boundary, dividing line, separation) The older sister alleged an encroachment on their garden. (encroachment: intrusion, infringement, impingement) The younger worried that a fence would encroach on the public path. (encroach: intrude, infringe, impinge) To trespass knowingly on private land was one thing. (trespass: intrude, encroach, transgress) To pick fruit from a branch hanging over a public stile was a question neither could settle with a ruler.
They found an injunction among their grandfather's papers. (injunction: order, command, directive) It forbade an earlier owner to block the stile. Another document granted a stay pending a hearing. (document: written record, paper, instrument; stay: suspension, postponement, halt) Neither settled the present contention. (contention: assertion, claim, argument) A surveyor explained why the two paths seemed to diverge. (diverge: separate, part, deviate) The divergence had begun when somebody planted a bench directly on the original path. (divergence: separation, difference, deviation)
They lifted the bench. Beneath it lay a square stone with an arrow pointing to the stile. Both sisters could now agree to refrain from building a fence while the boundary was checked. (refrain: abstain, desist, forbear) By the time they moved the bench into the shade, the surveyor's little boy had picked enough berries for three. He would willingly share them, he said, if somebody would settle which side owned the cream.