got a pianner up to our place, an' Mrs. Sneath won't be a-fingerin'
on it fer five months. She's a-goin' East with me. If we could only git
it down here an' back all right. If the' 's only a road from Skyland
down here or from Mill Flat up, but the' ain't, so the' 's no use
talkin'. Couldn't ship it down to the Flat an' up on mule-back, or
nothin', either; so I guess it can't be did.'

"'Why not send it down the flume?' asts Jess, timid-like. I could see
she was jest crazy about gittin' it.

"'Oh, the flume is old, an' it's rotten in places, an' such a heavy load
might go through.'

"'Why, it holds up the grub-boat all right,' says Jess 'Oh, if I could
only have that pianner down here! I can play a little already, an' I'd
l'arn a lot. I'd practise eight hours a day.'

"'How about gittin' the meals?' asts Hemenway.

"'Wal, I'd set up, then, an' practise all night,' says she.

"'I'm afeard that 'u'd be pretty hard on yer paw,' says Mr. Sneath,
smilin'. 'Wal, Jud, we got ter be goin'.'

"So they gits inter their dude boat, an' Jess she skips along after 'em,
an' jest as they's about to ontie she yells out to the soop'rintendent:

"'Cain't I have it? Cain't I have it? Cain't yeh send it down the flume?
Please say yeh will. I'll take the best kind o' keer of it. It sha'n't
git a single scratch.'

"Mr. Sneath he looks at her a minute kinder tender-like, an' I knowed
them big eyes o' hern was a-doin' their work. Them big soft baby eyes
would 'a' drawed sap outer a dead log.

"'Wal,' says he, 'we'll see. If Mrs. Sneath's willin' I guess it'll be
all right.'

"'Thank you, thank you, thank you!' she yells as the boat flies down the
flume.

"I seed Jud blow a kiss to her, an' I knowed she was happy as a bird.
She was a-singin' aroun' the shanty all day, an' at supper she done
nothin' but talk, talk, talk about that there pianner.

"'Don't be so awful gay, Miss. Hemenway,' says I, for I was afeard she
might be disapp'inted. 'Yeh ain't got it yet. Yeh know, Mr. Sneath's a'
awful busy man, an' he may fergit it.'

"'Oh, he won't fergit! Jud'll poke him up on it,' says she. 'An' I think
I'll have it put right over there in that corner. No, that's on the
flume side, an' it might draw dampness there. Over there by the winder's
the place, an' plenty o' light, too. Wonder if they'll think to send
down a stool.'

"I had to skin up to Skyland nex' day. Jud says the soop'rintendent has
to light out quicker'n he'd thought,