o bear, and I must bear it no longer than is
necessary. I have just found out that in order to get water out of my
own well, I must go to the back porch of a stranger. Such things
cannot be endured. If my son George were here, he would tell me what I
ought to do. I shall write to him, and see what he advises. I do not
mind waiting a little bit, now that I know that you can fix Mr.
Warren's house so that it won't move any farther."

Thus the matter was left. My house was braced that afternoon, and
toward evening I started to go to a hotel in the town to spend the
night.

"No, sir!" said Mrs. Carson. "Do you suppose that I am going to stay
here all night with a great empty house jammed up against me, and
everybody knowing that it is empty? It will be the same as having
thieves in my own house to have them in yours. You have come down here
in your property, and you can stay in it and take care of it!"

"I don't object to that in the least," I said. "My two women are here,
and I can tell them to attend to my meals. I haven't any chimney, but
I suppose they can make a fire some way or other."

"No, sir!" said Mrs. Carson. "I am not going to have any strange
servants on my place. I have just been able to prevail upon my own
women to go into the house, and I don't want any more trouble. I have
had enough already!"

"But, my dear madam," said I, "you don't want me to go to the town, and
you won't allow me to have any cooking done here. What am I to do?"

"Well," she said, "you can eat with us. It may be two or three days
before I can hear from my son George, and in the meantime you can lodge
in your own house and I will take you to board. That is the best way I
can see of managing the thing. But I am very sure I am not going to be
left here alone in the dreadful predicament in which you have put me."

We had scarcely finished supper when Jack Brandiger came to see me. He
laughed a good deal a about my sudden change of base, but thought, on
the whole, my house had made a very successful move. It must be more
pleasant in the valley than up on that windy hill. Jack was very much
interested in everything, and when Mrs. Carson and her daughter
appeared, as we were walking about viewing the scene, I felt myself
obliged to introduce him.

"I like those ladies," said he to me, afterwards. "I think you have
chosen very agreeable neighbors."

"How do you know you like them?" said I. "You had scarcely anyt