The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-12-25
THE, PRESS.
A Christmas HOUSEKEEPING
lcoNcLyDED FROM ErRsr pAeE.l

daring to move lest he should break some
thing, and fumbled all over the place There
was no handle on the inside of that door, a.
the CAGE is with most closets, ana there it was
plain he mrst stay till he was let out--unless
be hallooed.
Should he halloo2 What a time it " ould
make If he did Father and mother and the big
boys and the little girls would all come rush
ing down,-it would take more than haloo-
Ing to get the big girls out of bed ,-and maybe
great-grsndmother would have a fit;-and
then, besides, everybody would be sick and
cross tomorrow. No, he wonld wait little
while and see what would happen. Perhaps
Johnny or Tom would be the first to come in
the morning, and could let him out, and
they would enjoy the joke together and creeI
back to bed.
So thinking, Laddy laid his hands on the
driving blanket for his father, and wrapped il
round himself, for it was none too warm in
that closet which, besides its other uses, had
been part of the old cellar ventilating-hue. A
fresh sense of injury in relation to the bicycle
eyercame him, as he folded the blanket,-his
fathers pleasure was provided for. And then
be in the morning! But it would do them
good. Tney wouldn't leave diamonds and
pearls, and bonds and sealskins and purses Of
money round in that manner again, with bur
glars prowling about the housed He rolled up
his eyes in little sanctimonious virtue,
sasnking OF the lesson he was giving his cid
ers, land saw something overhead shining
brighter than Sophia's diamonds,-a star, like
an immense jewel on the deep dark blue vel
vet of the bit of sky above him, and then he
realized that the place, running up in a hollow
shaft beside the chimney to its top. was open
to all the winter night, let the opening be ever
SO narrow; and he grew, perhaps, sixty degrees
colder in second. Goodness, how cold he
wasl His teeth began to chatter, he felt his
throat tickling, his head stufflng, his back ach-
ing, and he was confident he would have a
lung fever before daybreak. He put his bare
ieet against the chimney bricks; to be sure
there was some warmth in those,-but what
was that in place open to all outdoors? For
some of the top bricks had fallen, weaths,ing
the storms Of half century, and made the
hole larger than that crack through which the
draught originally whistled. And what if it
should begin to rain or snowl Laddy, in his
minds eye, was already buried in snow
drift. and he began to think that he had hat
ter make noise about it. He was, perbans
to be suffocated there in a drift that no ST.
Bernard dogs would ever find, nobody would
ever know anything about it, and his mor =,
would miss him in the morning, -he VIZ -.
on the edge of tears and cries. ''S'
But before the tears could gathey n
new thought flashed over Laddy
What had he done? He had - ~ 49,
objects of value and made -
That was what he had d, - - 49,
body would say he had do 80 W. 49, s;tsaso.,oo
to all appearance, wouE .to.o =, ~ ~
tween him and that r 49,. Lorsor~ao,.o~ MI, !.
If thew should ho, >'nor nousepreaAor. w ha'
- !. d him to be a thief? The
49,, 49, ooas y 4de his pulse stop and his feet
.,o,,,,,r =, - The very hair on his head began
ne -, - as he pictured the scene to him
.I'.'.,s. lis father should take him by the
&c. - and wheel him about to look in his
men the constable should spring the
- cuffs round his wrists and march him
: IN to the police court with crowd of boot
az boys following-and there the terrible old
i~N6S "S~Aa W. cAeeAI6 Al hAo ShoA' i]oOuJ
knew just how that court room looked; for
once, when the boys had been nutting in old
Jacques pasture, old Jacques had surprised
them and driven them all into town in front of
him like flock of sheep, and walked them
up into the court room, seated them on a
bench and left them there, cooling their heels,
as he had called it, and gradually finding out,
through their sobs, and gulps and lamenta-
tions, that that was the end of it. But remem-
bering his sensations of shame and horror then,
Laddy had never been able to think of the
place since without shadder. And now if he
were to be taken there in earnest-for here he
was, with all his plumber about him, and of
course his father, never dreaming that his
own boy was the culprit, would be having the
constables in to survey the scene and discover
the thief's tracks. And, thereupon, Laddy re
solved never to halloo, in fact, die in those
tracks frst
AS he lay there he saw the slow star over
head swim out of sight; little thin cloud blew
over the darkness; one by one, other stars
came and looked down at him with their beau
tiful eyes; perhaps this last one was n comet
speeding on her flight, with all her shining
films around hers-ifi it was, Laddy was the
only person who ever saw it, and he did not
see it long; for in the midst of his doub', and
fear, and misery, haunted by flashes of stars,
and flashes of Sophia's diamonds, and flashes
of the constable's brass buttons, he fell asleep.
How long he slept Laddy had no more means
of knowing than if he had been little stow
away in ships hold. But all at once he woke,
woke to find himself overwhelmed with feel
ing of unutterable horror, he knew not why.
But as soon as he could collect himself and dis
tinguish one sensation from anot her he was
aware of strange swift cracking sound, like
the noise made by burning pine kinding-
wood. With that, too, came sitting choking
smell, smell of smoke, and red glare
through the mantel chinks. All, great
heavens! the house was on fire, he thought,
ard he could not get out, and nobody knew he
was in, and he would be roasted alive, he
would be burned to death! "Let nae out, let
me out" roared Laddy "Fire! frel frel''
and the sound sank in his throat, and he faint
ed dead away.
When Laddy came to himself he was lying
on the bed in his own room, and the commo-
ton was all over. For a commotion there had
been, and wild one. The screams. the kicks,
the smothered cries of "fre!" and Michaels
single yell of terror, had brought almost the
whole of the household down in wrappers and
shawls, and anything handy, to behold the
stripped mantel-shelf ard the bare tables, and