n some hills a piece back of us. We drank it dry up to a
place like this, only bigger, and do you know, a fellow of our company
named Jim Lambert was following it up under the rocks, and we had to
pull him out by the feet to keep him from being suffocated. That was
four days ago, and we had a field telegram yesterday from a place near
the Ohio, saying that a full head of water had come down the river
again, three feet deep from bank to bank and running as if there had
been a cloudburst in the hills. Mighty glad they were to see it, too."

There was a silence, but at length a solemn youth sitting near said in
very serious tones:

"I've thought over that story very thoroughly, and I believe it's a
lie."

"Vermont," said the first Ohio lad, "don't you have faith in my friend's
narrative?"

"I believe every word of it," said Warner warmly. "Our friend here, who
I see can see, despite the dim light, has a countenance which one could
justly say indicates a doubtful and disputatious nature, wishes to
discredit it because he has not heard of such a thing before. Now, I
ask you, gentlemen, intelligent and fair-minded as I know you are, where
would we be, where would civilization be if we assumed the attitude of
our friend here. If a thing is ever seen at all somebody sees it first,
else it would never be seen. _Quod erat demonstrandum_. You remember
your schooldays, of course. I thank you for your applause, gentlemen,
but I'm not through yet. We have passed the question of things seen,
and we now come to the question of things done, which is perhaps more
important. It is obvious even to the doubtful or carping mind that if
a new thing is done it is done by somebody first. Others will do it
afterward, but there must and always will be a first.

"Nobody ever swallowed a river before, beginning at its mouth and
swallowing it clean down to its source, but a division of gallant young
troops from Ohio have done so. They are the first, and they must and
always will be the first. Doubtless, other rivers will be swallowed
later on. As the population increases, larger rivers will be swallowed,
but the credit for initiating the first and greatest pure-water drinking
movement in the history of the world will always belong to a brave army
division from the state of Ohio."

A roar of applause burst forth, and Warner, standing up, bowed
gracefully with his hand upon his heart. Then came a dead silence, as
a hand fell upon the Vermonter'