d, "that your house has passed
directly over our well, and must have carried away the little shed and
the pump and everything above ground. I should not wonder a bit," she
continued slowly, "if it is under your porch."

I jumped to the ground, for the steps were shattered, and began to
search for the well, and it was not long before I discovered its round
dark opening, which was, as Miss Carson had imagined, under one end of
my porch.

"What can we do?" she asked. "We can't have breakfast or get along at
all without water." It was a terribly depressing thing to me to think
that I, or rather my house, had given these people so much trouble.
But I speedily, assured Miss Carson that if she could find a bucket and
a rope which I could lower into the well, I would provide her with
water.

She went into her house to see what she could find, and I tore away the
broken planks of the porch, so that I could get to the well. And then,
when she came with a tin pail and a clothes-line, I went to work to
haul up water and carry it to her back door.

"I don't want mother to find out what has happened to the well," she
said, "for she has enough on her mind already."

Mrs. Carson was a woman with some good points in her character. After
a time she called to me herself, and told me to come in to breakfast.
But during the meal she talked very earnestly to me about the amazing
trespass I had committed, and about the means which should be taken to
repair the damages my house had done to her property. I was as
optimistic as I could be, and the young lady spoke very cheerfully and
hopefully about the affair, so that we were beginning to get along
somewhat pleasantly, when, suddenly, Mrs. Carson sprang to her feet.
"Heavens and earth!" she cried, "this house is moving!"

She was not mistaken. I had felt beneath my feet a sudden sharp
shock--not severe, but unmistakable. I remembered that both houses
stood upon slightly sloping ground. My blood turned cold, my heart
stood still; even Miss Carson was pale.

When we had rushed out of doors to see what had happened, or what was
going to happen, I soon found that we had been needlessly frightened.
Some of the broken timbers on which my house had been partially resting
had given way, and the front part of the building had slightly
descended, jarring as it did so the other house against which it
rested. I endeavored to prove to Mrs. Carson that the result was
encouraging rather tha