l send it back afore the Sneaths gits home.

"'He told me I could have it; he promised me,' says she, 'he promised
me, an' I'll never marry you unless you send it down. You can do it;
you're goin' to be boss, an' you know it will be all right. I'll see
that they ain't a scratch on it; an' you can put it in the warehouse,
an' they'll never know it's be'n away.'

"An' so she keeps a-teasin' an' a-teasin', till finally Jud he gits
desperate.

"'Oram,' says he to me one day, 'Oram, you're an ol' flume man. What do
you think o' runnin' that pianner down to Five?'

"I shakes my head. I likes the boy, an' I don't want ter see him take
sech big chances o' gittin' inter trouble. Somebody might tell Sneath,
an' then it might be all off about his bein' flume boss. Besides, nobody
had never run no pianner down no flume before, an' yeh couldn't tell
what might happen.

"'D' yeh think, honest, Oram,' says he, 'the ol' flume's likely ter give
way anywheres?'

"'No,' says I; 'she's strong as a railroad-track.'

"'Wal, then,' says he, 'I'm a-goin' to do it. You come down Sunday an'
we'll take her out afore anybody's out o' the bunk-house.'

"I tries to argy him out of it, but he won't listen. So Sunday, about
five in the mornin', I goes up to Skyland, an' we slides the big boat
inter the flume an' gits the pianner onto the rollers, an' 't ain't much
trouble to load her all right; fer, yer know, them big boats has flat
tops like decks, an' things sets up on top of 'em. But while we was
a-doin' that an' the boat is hitched tight to a stanchion 'longside o'
the flume, the water backs up behind so high that it looks as though the
pianner is a-goin' ter git wet. This skeers Jud, an' he seems to lose
his head someways.

"'Hustle up, Oram!' says he, very nervous-like. 'The boat's crowdin'
down so it won't let any water past. Ontie that rope.'

"I takes a good notice o' the pianner, an' I don't like her looks,
sittin' up there so high on that little deck.

"'We oughter tie her on good an' tight,' says I.

"She's a upright, yeh see, an' she's as top-heavy as a pile-driver. I
was afeard she'd strike a low limb or somethin' an' git smashed. So I
goes to settle her a bit an' lay her down on her back an' tie her on;
but he says he don't know about that layin'-down business, an' declares
she'll ride all right. He speaks pretty sharp, too. So I gits a little
huffy an' onties the rope, an' we starts.

"Wal, she don't go very fast at fir