oatin' in the
reservoir, and fell in?" "Playing at canal-boat in the Ditch?" were some
of the cheerful hypotheses. The fleeting sense of gratitude they had
felt for their deliverers was dissipated by the time they had reached
their homes, and their rancor increased by the information that when the
earthquake occurred Mr. Tom Sparrell and Miss Delaware were enjoying
a "pasear" in the forest--he having a half-holiday by virtue of
the festival--and that the earthquake had revived his fears of a
catastrophe. The two had procured axes in the woodman's hut and did what
they thought was necessary to relieve the situation of the picnickers.
But the very modesty of this account of their own performance had the
effect of belittling the catastrophe itself, and the picnickers' report
of their exceeding peril was received with incredulous laughter.

For the first time in the history of Red Gulch there was a serious
division between the Piper family, supported by the Contingent, and the
rest of the settlement. Tom Sparrell's warning was remembered by
the latter, and the ingratitude of the picnickers to their rescuers
commented upon; the actual calamity to the reservoir was more or less
attributed to the imprudent and reckless contiguity of the revelers on
that day, and there were not wanting those who referred the accident
itself to the machinations of the scheming Ditch Director Piper!

It was said that there was a stormy scene in the Piper household that
evening. The judge had demanded that Delaware should break off her
acquaintance with Sparrell, and she had refused; the judge had demanded
of Sparrell's employer that he should discharge him, and had been met
with the astounding information that Sparrell was already a silent
partner in the concern. At this revelation Judge Piper was alarmed;
while he might object to a clerk who could not support a wife, as a
consistent democrat he could not oppose a fairly prosperous tradesman.
A final appeal was made to Delaware; she was implored to consider the
situation of her sisters, who had all made more ambitious marriages
or were about to make them. Why should she now degrade the family by
marrying a country storekeeper?

It is said that here the youngest Miss Piper made a memorable reply, and
a revelation the truth of which was never gainsaid:--

"You all wanter know why I'm going to marry Tom Sparrell?" she queried,
standing up and facing the whole family circle.

"Yes."

"Why I pr