ide. Irvine, as a woodcutter, we could tolerate; but
Irvine as a friend of the family, at so much a day, was too bald an
imposition, and at length, on the afternoon of the fourth or fifth day
of our connection, I explained to him, as clearly as I could, the light
in which I had grown to regard his presence. I pointed out to him that I
could not continue to give him a salary for spitting on the floor; and
this expression, which came after a good many others, at last penetrated
his obdurate wits. He rose at once, and said if that was the way he was
going to be spoke to, he reckoned he would quit. And, no one
interposing, he departed.

So far, so good. But we had no firewood. The next afternoon, I strolled
down to Rufe's and consulted him on the subject. It was a very droll
interview, in the large, bare north room of the Silverado Hotel, Mrs.
Hanson's patchwork on a frame, and Rufe, and his wife, and I, and the
oaf himself, all more or less embarrassed. Rufe announced there was
nobody in the neighbourhood but Irvine who could do a day's work for
anybody. Irvine, thereupon, refused to have any more to do with my
service; he "wouldn't work no more for a man as had spoke to him 's I
had done." I found myself on the point of the last humiliation--driven
to beseech the creature whom I had just dismissed with insult: but I
took the high hand in despair, said there must be no talk of Irvine
coming back unless matters were to be differently managed; that I would
rather chop firewood for myself than be fooled; and, in short, the
Hansons being eager for the lad's hire, I so imposed upon them with
merely affected resolution, that they ended by begging me to re-employ
him again, on a solemn promise that he should be more industrious. The
promise, I am bound to say, was kept. We soon had a fine pile of
firewood at our door; and if Caliban gave me the cold shoulder and
spared me his conversation, I thought none the worse of him for that,
nor did I find my days much longer for the deprivation.

The leading spirit of the family was, I am inclined to fancy, Mrs.
Hanson. Her social brilliancy somewhat dazzled the others, and she had
more of the small change of sense. It was she who faced Kelmar, for
instance; and perhaps if she had been alone, Kelmar would have had no
rule within her doors. Rufe, to be sure, had a fine, sober, open-air
attitude of mind, seeing the world without exaggeration--perhaps, we may
even say, without enough; for he