Last modified: Monday, May 5, 2008 2:29 AM EDT STEVENSON: The stories old stone walls tell A couple of weeks ago, Otis Dyer gave an excellent talk-and-picture program at the Attleboro Historic Preservation Society about old stone walls, including many on his own property in Rehoboth. It got me to thinking about my own love of old stone walls. Perhaps, because all my life I've loved to walk in the woods, in Attleboro during my childhood and many places later on, the sight of old stone walls was a part of my life and viewed as just a taken-for-granted source of beauty. I wonder if I thought of the real reason and history of them before we moved to New Hampshire, with a mile-long trail in the woods in back of our motel. I walked there as often as possible. There were many great forest and wild animal possibilities to enjoy by staying on the trail, including the beauty and wonder of the trees changing with the seasons. And there were many others to see when I strayed off the trail into the "actual woods." When I found old stone walls in places that probably no one but me had seen for many years, it really hit me that these walls were built by farmers to keep their farm animals from roaming off their property. In other words, the beautiful trees that filled the woods now were not there then. At the time the stone walls were built, the large fields they surrounded were near to farmyards, homes, barns, and smaller corrals. There were lots of huge boulders in the woods on our property - I loved to see them -and perhaps they had been broken up to make some of the walls. I naturally couldn't tell if the stones making the walls had been dug up or not. Who knows? The walls in these areas were not the only ones I've seen in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. On our days off, usually just Wednesdays because of our 24-7 business, we'd often have lunch at on old inn somewhere, but sometimes I'd coerce Pret to join me in a woods walk, which he really enjoyed, too, especially if I'd packed a lunch and we ate it in "God's country." Both activities - eating at old inns and discovering the woods - were fun to investigate and enjoy. When we came back to Attleboro and bought a house in a neighborhood that originally had been situated in a field or the woods, I'm sure, we liked all the gardens the previous owners had planted. There was an area, however, near the back that didn't get much sun because of the trees and I wanted to plant a shade garden. Digging up the earth, I continually found rocks underground, small and large. Maybe some people would have given up, but I loved them and used them to make my own stone wall in the area. Building the wall was more fun than planting the flowers later, for me. The wall is almost done, and only illness has slowed it down. One reason to insist to myself that I get all better! I'll be out there this spring to finish it. It's not tall enough to keep any animals in or out, but that doesn't matter. I just like looking at it. But I'll still keep on seeing the older stone walls in many wooded areas around here. Can't wait! BETTY STEVENSON of Attleboro is a community columnist. Her commentary appears every other Monday.