and then the man set
down his glass untouched and went off. He had not meant all that he had
said, but having blurted it out in a very awkward way and at the very
worst time, got off and out of it as best he could.

Sandy was tortured. The dear little Widow saw it, and asked him what the
trouble was, and the man, blunt, honest fellow, told all that had
happened.

The camp was disgusted with the man who had mooted this question. They
counted him a traitor to the Forks--a sort of Judas. If he had gone and
hung himself the camp would have been perfectly satisfied. In fact, it
is pretty certain that the camp would have been very glad to have had
any excuse, even the least bit of an excuse, to do that office for him.

Then the camp was angry with Sandy, too, on general principles. He had
betrayed them into a sort of idol-worship under a mistake. He had lured
it into the expression of an enthusiasm quite out of keeping with the
dignity of a rough and hardy race of men, and it did not like it.

"The great big idiot!" said the camp. "Didn't he know any better? Don't
he know any better now than to go on in this way half-tickled to death,
thinking himself the happiest and the most blest of men?" The camp was
ashamed of him.

The little Judge, finding things going against the first family of the
Forks, felt also that he in some way was concerned, and felt called upon
to explain. This was his theory and explanation.

"The Widow was a widow?"

"Yes."

"The Legislature met at San Jose on the first day of September?"

"Yes."

"The Legislature granted that first session enough divorces to fill a
book?"

"Well?"

"This young woman, this Widow, might 'a bin married; she might 'a bin on
her way to the mountains; she might 'a stopped in there and got her
divorce, one day on her way up; she might 'a come right on here and got
coaxed into marrying Sandy."

"Rather quick work, wouldn't it be, Judge?"

"Well, considering the climate of Californy, I think not." And the
little man pushed out his legs under the card-table, puffed out his
little red cheeks, leaned back, and felt perfectly certain that he had
made a great point, while the wise men of the camp sat there more
confused than before.

However, as the days went by men went on with their work in their mines
down in the boiling, foaming, full little streams, now over-flowing from
the snows that melted in the warm Spring sun, and said but little more
on the subject. It