you interrupted me ten
minutes ago, Grace Parsloe is coming on here to make us a visit. She
fell ill, and her employers, after doing what could be done for her in
the way of medical attendance, made up their minds to give her a change
of climate. Now, you know, as she had originally gone to them with a
letter from me, and as I live out here, on the borders of the Southern
desert, in a climate that has no equal, they naturally thought of
writing to me about it. And of course I said I'd be delighted to have
her here, for a month, or a year, or whatever time it may be. She will
be a pleasure to me, and a friend for Miriam, and she may find a husband
somewhere up or down the coast, who will give her a fortune, and think
all the better of her because she, like him, had the ability and the
pluck to make her own way in the world."

"Humph! When do you expect her?"

"She may turn up any day. She is coming round by way of the Isthmus.
From what I hear, she is really a very fine, clever girl. She held a
responsible position in the shop, and----"

"Well, let us sink the shop, and get back to the rational and
instructive conversation that we--or, to be more accurate, that I was
engaged in when this digression began. I presume you are aware that all
the indications are lacustrine?"

Hereupon, a hammock, suspended near the talkers, and filled with what
appeared to be a bundle of lace and silken shawls, became agitated, and
developed at one end a slender arched foot in an open-work silk stocking
and sandal-slipper, and at the other end a dark, youthful, oval face,
with glorious eyes and dull black hair. A voice of music asked,--

"What is lacustrine, papa?"

"Oh, so you are awake again, Senorita Miriam?"

"I haven't been asleep. What is lacustrine?"

"Ask the professor."

"Lacus, you know, my dear," said the latter, "means fresh-water
indications as against salt."

"Then how does Great Salt Lake----"

"Oh, for that matter, the whole ocean was fresh originally. Moisture,
evaporation, precipitation. Water is a great solvent: earthquakes break
the crust, and there you are!"

"Then, before the earthquakes, the Salt Lakes were fresh?" rejoined the
hammock.

"There was fresh water west of the Rockies and south of---- Why," cried
the professor, interrupting himself, "when I was in Wyoming and around
there, this spring, in what they call the Bad Lands,--cliffs and buttes
of indurated yellow clay and sandstone, worn and carved