"I can't read for
their quarreling."
"Booze, probably," I said. "When you've lived in the flood district as
long as I have, Mr. Reynolds, you'll know that the rising of the river
is a signal for every man in the vicinity to stop work and get full.
The fuller the river, the fuller the male population."
"Then this flood will likely make 'em drink themselves to death!" he
said. "It's a lulu."
"It's the neighborhood's annual debauch. The women are busy keeping
the babies from getting drowned in the cellars, or they'd get full,
too. I hope, since it's come this far, it will come farther, so the
landlord will have to paper the parlor."
That was at three o'clock. At four Mr. Ladley went down the stairs,
and I heard him getting into a skiff in the lower hall. There were
boats going back and forth all the time, carrying crowds of curious
people, and taking the flood sufferers to the corner grocery, where
they were lowering groceries in a basket on a rope from an upper
window.
I had been making tea when I heard Mr. Ladley go out.
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