It was not long before Mr.
Tretherick discovered that the sentiment he had fostered while freighting between Stockton and Knight's Ferry was different from that which his wife had evolved from the contemplation of California scenery and her own soul.

Being a man of imperfect logic, this caused him to beat her; and she, being equally faulty in deduction, was impelled to a certain degree of unfaithfulness on the same premise.

Then Mr.
Tretherick began to drink, and Mrs.Tretherick to contribute regularly to the columns of the AVALANCHE.

It was at this time that Colonel Starbottle discovered a similarity in Mrs.Tretherick's verse to the genius of Sappho, and pointed it out to the citizens of Fiddletown in a two-columned criticism, signed "A.

S.," also published in the AVALANCHE, and supported by extensive quotation.