e both very sorry that the work must be begun again,
but I was especially dissatisfied, for the weather was getting cold,
there was already snow upon the ground, and I was told that work could
not be carried on in winter weather. I lost no time, however, in
making a contract with a well-driver, who assured me that as soon as
the working season should open, which probably would be very early in
the spring, he would come to my place and begin to drive my well.

The season did open, and so did the pea-blossoms, and the pods actually
began to fill before I saw that well-driver again. I had had a good
deal of correspondence with him in the meantime, urging him to prompt
action, but he always had some good reason for delay. (I found out
afterwards that he was busy fulfilling a contract made before mine, in
which he promised to drive a well as soon as the season should open.)

At last--it was early in the summer--he came with his derricks, a
steam-engine, a trip-hammer, and a lot of men. They took off the roof
of my house, removed the engine, and set to work.

For many a long day, and I am sorry to say for many a longer night,
that trip-hammer hammered and banged. On the next day after the
night-work began, one of my neighbors came to me to know what they did
that for. I told him they were anxious to get through.

"Get through what?" said he. "The earth? If they do that, and your
six-inch pipe comes out in a Chinaman's back yard, he will sue you for
damages."

When the pipe had been driven through the soft stratum under the old
well, and began to reach firmer ground, the pounding and shaking of the
earth became worse and worse. My wife was obliged to leave home with
our child.

"If he is to do without both water and sleep," said she, "he cannot
long survive." And I agreed with her.

She departed for a pleasant summer resort where her married sister with
her child was staying, and from week to week I received very pleasant
letters from her, telling me of the charms of the place, and dwelling
particularly upon the abundance of cool spring water with which the
house was supplied.

While this terrible pounding was going on I heard various reports of
its effect upon my neighbors. One of them, an agriculturist, with whom
I had always been on the best of terms, came with a clouded brow.

"When I first felt those shakes," he said, "I thought they were the
effects of seismic disturbances, and I did not mind, but wh