"It's that _dog_!" she said.
Then came a ghost-like cry, apparently from the heavens.
"Mother!"
Mrs. Brown raised a startled countenance to the skies. There seemed to
be nothing in the skies that could have addressed her.
Then she suddenly saw a small face peering down over the coping of the
roof. It was a face that was very frightened, under a superficial
covering of soot. It was William's face.
"I can't get down," it said hoarsely.
Mrs. Brown's heart stood still.
"Stay where you are, William," she said faintly. "Don't _move_."
The entire staff of removers was summoned. A ladder was borrowed from
a neighbouring garden and found to be too short. Another was fetched
and fastened to it. William, at his dizzy height, was growing
irritable.
"I can't stay up here for _ever_," he said severely.
At last he was rescued by his friend Mr. Blake and brought down to
safety. His account was confused.
"I wanted to _help_. I wanted to open that door for 'em, so I climbed
up by the scullery roof, an' the ivy, an' the drain-pipe, an' I tried
to get down the chimney. I didn't know which one it was, but I tried
'em all an' they were all too little, an' I tried to get down by the
ivy again but I couldn't, so I waited till you came an' hollered out.
I wasn't scared," he said, fixing them with a stern eye. "I wasn't
scared a bit. I jus' wanted to get down. An' this ole black chimney
stuff tastes beastly.
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