but he didn't fergit about the
pianner. Mis' Sneath was as easy as greased skids, but Mr. Sneath he
didn't know exactly. He sends the pianner over to the warehouse there
'longside the flume an' has the men slap together a stout boat to run
her down in; but at the las' minute he backs out. He was a-lookin' at
the pianner standin' there in the warehouse, an' he says to Jud, says
he:

"'That there pianner has be'n in our family ever sence we was married.
Marthy allus sot a heap o' store by that pianner. It was my first
present to her, an' I know she thinks a hull lot of it, even if she
don't seem ter keer. Trouble is, she don't know what sendin' it down the
flume means. Yeh see, it ain't like a long string o' lumber--weight's
all in one place, an' she might break through. This flume ain't what it
was thirteen years ago, yeh know.'

"Jud he argies with him, 'cos he knows Jess's heart'll be broke if she
don't git the pianner; an' after a while he thinks he's got it all
fixed; but jest afore Sneath an' his wife takes the stage he telaphones
down to the warehouse to let the pianner stay there till he comes back.
Then he goes away, an' Jud is as down in the mouth as if he'd run his
fist ag'in' a band-saw. He mopes aroun' all day, an' he's afeard to
tell Jess; but as I was a-goin' back to Five that night, he tells me to
break it to her gentle-like an' say he'd done his best. Which I did.
Wal, that gal jest howls when I tells her, an' sobs an' sobs an' takes
on like a baby coyote with the croup. But her dad he quiets her at last.

"Jud he hardly dasts to show up on Sunday, but when he does, she won't
look at him fer quite a while. Then some o' that strawbary-blonde in her
comes out in some o' the dernedest scoldin' yeh ever heer'd.

"'It's too bad, Jessie,' says he, 'but it ain't my fault. I done my
best. He backed out at the las' minute; he backed out, an' I couldn't do
no more than if a tree dropped on me. He backed out.'

"After a while he takes her off up the flume a piece, an' they stays
there a long time, but she don't seem satisfied much when she comes
back. There is hell a-poppin' there for about three days over that there
pianner, an' the ol' man he gits so sick of it he gives her warnin'
he'll light out if she don't quit. Wal, she quiets down some after that,
but she makes Jud as mis'able as a treed coon fer over a week. She keeps
a-tryin' an' a-tryin' to git him to send the pianner down anyway. She
tells him she'l