says. 'I hope you've
had a pleasant journey--do you always travel
this way?'

"Scotty raised up and found his craft was
aground--high and dry--no water within a
hundred feet of it. On one side was quite a
little town.

"'Say,' says he, 'could I trouble you to tell
me where I am, friend?'

"'You're at Placerville,' answers the other.

"'Placerville!' yells Scotty, 'and I went to
sleep at Cutter's Mill, sixty-five miles from
here!--what are you giving us, man?'

"'I'm putting it to you straight,' says the
stranger. 'Take a look around you.'

"Scotty looked and there was all kinds of
wreckage, from a dead beef critter to a wheel
barrow.

"'What in nation's all this?' says he.

"'Washout,' says the man. 'Cloud burst
up on the divide--worst we've ever
had--your box is about high water mark--you see
there was water enough for awhile--I reckon
you're about the only thing that came through
alive.'

"'Well, wouldn't that knock you?' says Scotty.

--"Whilst the rest of the folk at the mill
was taking to the high ground for their lives,
with the water roaring and tearing through
the gulch, Scotty had peacefully gone off in
his little boat, down the creek, and instead of
going over the rapids, where he'd have been
done, for all his luck, the box ambles through
the flume they was building for the new mill.
Of course there was the jounce over the tail
race, but that hadn't hurt him much, and after,
he rocked in the cradle of the deep, until he
got beached at Placerville.

"'Come along, friend,' says Scotty to the
feller, 'you and me are going to have a little
drink on this, if it is the last act.' And I
reckon probably they made it two, for when
Scotty got back again he was in a condition
that made everybody believe that he'd only
guessed at the story he told. But they found
out afterward it was a solemn fact. Mattie,
give us some more coffee."

Thus abruptly recalled to Fairfield, Miss
Mattie started up.

"Well, Will, it does seem as if that was a
dangerous country to live in," said she.

"Oh, not so awful!" said Red. "Just as
many people die here as they do there--this
world's a dangerous place to live in, wherever
you strike it, Mattie."

"That's so," said she, thoughtfully.

"And now," said Red, pushing back his
chair, "it's time I got to work and left you to
do the housework undisturbed."

"What are you going to do, Will?"

"First place, there's fences and things to
be tinkered u