it shipped up on the first
freight-wagon to Skyland. An' they puts it inter the warehouse, an'
there she stands till Mr. Sneath comes home with his wife.

"When Mis' Sneath she sees the pianner brung inter her house she don't
notice any difference fer a while; but one day she sets down ter play,
an' she pounds out a few music, an' then she gives a jump an' looks all
over the machine an' she says, 'Good Lord!' An' Sneath he comes in, an'
they has a great time over how the' 's be'n sech a change in that
pianner. She finally makes up her mind it's a bran'-new one, an' sends
fer Jud an' asts him what he knows about it. An' he cain't lie a little
bit, so he up an' tells her that her pianner is all inter sawdust an'
scrap-iron down on the rocks, an' that this is a new one that he owes a
hundred an' fifty dollars on down ter Fresno.

"Then she busts out a-laughin', an' says:

"'Why, that old tin-pan! I'm glad it flew the flume. It wasn't wuth
twenty dollars. I got a noo grand pianner on the way here that I ordered
in Noo York. I'll make this here one a weddin' present to you an' Jess.'

"And the soop'rintendent he writes out his check an' sends it down to
Fresno to pay off the hundred an' fifty, an' when the weddin' it comes
off he gives 'em a set o' chiny dishes besides.

"Jud's flume boss now, an' Jess she plays that pianner an' sings like a
bird. When we gits down ter Mill Flat I'll show yeh their house. It's a
white one up on the side o' the hill, jest across the gulch from the
mill.

"Wal, yeh had all the grub yeh want, pardner? Say, ain't them green
gages sour? They sets yer teeth on aidge all right. An' I couldn't find
the boys' sugar-can. If yer full up, I guess we'd better git inter the
boat."

I took my seat behind Oram and a particularly offensive pipe he had
just lighted. Looking down the long, swift-running, threatening flume, I
shuddered; for since Oram's recital the native hue of my resolution had
been "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." I remarked that if
he saw any of those Cape Horn curves ahead to let me know and I would
get out and walk.

"Don't yeh be skeer'd by what I told yeh," said he. "Yeh got a pretty
fair-sized head, but yeh ain't quite so top-heavy as Mis' Sneath's big
upright. An', besides, the' ain't no more Cape Horn on this flume; they
calls that place Pianner P'int now."

THE CONTUMACY OF SARAH L. WALKER

BY

MIRIAM MICHELSON

Reprinted from _Munsey's Magazine_