Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-02-03

self. He took all his scaffolding with
him. but before he went away, he fixed
q beam with pulley in it into the top
of the chimney, and left long rope
hanging through it, so that a man
could be hoisted up a. any time; and
there the rope hung dangling, week af.
ter week until the master came home,
bringing the rod along with him.
Once it had come, there was no use
losing any more time in fixing it, so
one Saturday afternoon in January, up
went on a. plank. slung securely az
the end Of the rope, my tools along
with me, and settled myself astride on
the stone Gaping. Twas rather late in
the day, but the morning had been too
wet and stormy to work. and the mas
ter was as impatient to get the job done
as if it hadn't been himself that was
hindering it all this time. was as
much at home atop of the chimney as
was on the ground, and | was put
ting up my tools. Then, all of sud
den, l heard rafting noise, and look
ing over. | see the plank going down
very fast. called out 'Hullo there,
send that up again, will you? but the
only answer l got was loud laugh for
all the world like silly Jerry the natur-
ais; and sure enough, there he was,
standing by the windlass, jumping and
clapping his hands. looked about for
the man whose business it was to man.
age the wlndlass, but not sign of him
was there, and in minute | heard the
rafting of the pulley again, and saw
that the rope was running through it
in the wrong direction. | made grab
at it, but twas jerked out of my hand,
and before | could catch it again the
end had slipped through, and there |
was, more than hundred feet from the
ground, not knowing how in the world
| was to get down, and Jerry dancing
and capering below calling out, Come
down and thrash ME now, Mr.. Forde,
won't you?' Then | remembered very
distinctly that few days before | had
found this boy annoying Katie, and had
given him cut with switch had in
my hand. 'He had skunk away with
out word at the time, but it seemed
he remembered the blow. and this way
of being revenged.
Well, at first was scarcely fright
ened, expecting somehow that, once
the people knew of the fix | was in,
they'd find some way or other of get
ting me out of it. But when | come
to think of it deuce a bit of way
could hit on myself, and sure | knew
more about chimneys than any one else
in the place. Twas getting late, too !;
there wouldn't be much more than an
other half-hour of daylight, and the
wind was raising-I could hear the
whistling through the trees.
By this time the people knew what
had happened and crowd was collect
ing; could see them coming from
all parts, for of course l had view all
about. saw boy go up to the "ool
of the counting house, and presently
master Philip came out running as If
for his life. When he came he took
the command like, and began giving
directions; and the people who not on
ly stared al first, now ran here and
there as he sent them. First they
brought out long ladder, and fixed it
on the roof below the chimney. could
have told them that twas too short,
knowing as | did the length of every
ladder in the place; but somehow,
though l heard their shouts plainly, |
could not make them hear mine. 1t
seemed as if the voices went up like
smoke. Then there was great delay
while they went for long ladder, and
this, too, didn't reach half way. a man
climbed up it, however, and called out
to know had | bit of string in my
pocket that | could let down. Not bit
could find, | had had big ball only
the day before, but had taken it out
of my pocket and put it on shelf at
home. l took off my braces and fast
ened them and my pocket handker-
chief together; but :hey didn't near
reach the top of the ladder. so that
plan had to be given up.
All this time the wind was rising
and l was getting numb with the cold,
and stiff and cramped from being so
long in one position. There was big
clock right over the gateway, just op-
posite, and ! saw that it only wanted
twenty minutes OF FIVE; it would be
nearly dark at five, and once the dark
ness set in, what little hope | had
would then be gone.
Master Philip seemed to have gone
away by this time, but there was my
father, among the crowd, and who
should l see standing next him and
holding on by his arm, but Katie
They had forgotten everything but the
fright about me, and he seemed to be
talking to her and comforting her