ed on with her nose in the air.

When Mr. Barnet got fairly to work with his derrick, his men, and his
buckets, he found that there was a good deal more to do than he had
expected. The well-drivers had injured the original well by breaking
some of the tiles which lined it, and these had to be taken out and
others put in, and in the course of this work other improvements
suggested themselves and were made. Several times operations were
delayed by sickness in the family of Mr. Barnet, and also in the
families of his workmen, but still the work went on in a very fair
manner, although much more slowly than had been supposed by any one.
But in the course of time--I will not say how much time--the work was
finished, the engine was in its place, and it pumped water into my
house, and every day since then it has pumped all the water we need,
pure, cold, and delicious.

Knowing the promise Phineas Colwell had made, and feeling desirous of
having everything which concerned my well settled and finished, I went
to look for him to remind him of his duty toward Mrs. Perch, but I
could not find that naval and military mechanical agriculturist. He
had gone away to take a job or a contract,--I could not discover
which,--and he has not since appeared in our neighborhood. Mrs. Perch
is very severe on me about this.

"There's plenty of bad things come out of that well," she said, "but I
never thought anything bad enough would come out of it to make Mr.
Colwell go away and leave me to keep on being a widow with all them
orphans."

MR. TOLMAN

Mr. Tolman was a gentleman whose apparent age was of a varying
character. At times, when deep in thought on business matters or other
affairs, one might have thought him fifty-five or fifty-seven, or even
sixty. Ordinarily, however, when things were running along in a
satisfactory and commonplace way, he appeared to be about fifty years
old, while upon some extraordinary occasions, when the world assumed an
unusually attractive aspect, his age seemed to run down to forty-five
or less.

He was the head of a business firm. In fact, he was the only member of
it. The firm was known as Pusey and Co. But Pusey had long been dead
and the "Co.," of which Mr. Tolman had been a member, was dissolved.
Our elderly hero, having bought out the business, firm-name and all,
for many years had carried it on with success and profit. His
counting-house was a small and quiet place, but a great deal