He must promise to work for Fish six weeks of every
year and he must allow him free access to his grounds at all times.
Sparrow did not like these terms, but the days were growing shorter and
winter was coming on fast and his family were without food.
He was forced to accept and from that time on, he and his sons and
daughters were no longer quite as free as they had been before.
They did not exactly become the servants or the slaves of their
neighbor, but they were dependent upon his kindness for their own
livelihood. When they met Fish in the road they stepped aside and said
"Good morning, sir." And he answered them--or not--as the case might be.
He now owned a great deal of water-front, twice as much as before.
He had more land and more laborers and he could raise more grain than in
the past years. The nearby villagers talked of the new house he was
building and in a general way, he was regarded as a man of growing
wealth and importance.
Late that summer an unheard-of-thing happened.
It rained.
The oldest inhabitants could not remember such a thing, but it rained
hard and steadily for two whole days. A little brook, the existence of
which everybody had forgotten, was suddenly turned into a wild torrent.
In the middle of the night it came thundering down from the mountains
and destroyed the harvest of the farmer who occupied the rocky ground at
the foot of the hills.
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