er face on her arms and cried as if her heart would break. She
cried until her eyes were heavy, and she thought she would be obliged to
go to sleep. But just as she was thinking of going to sleep, something
fell down the chimney and made her look up. It was a piece of mortar, and
it brought a good deal of soot with it. She bent forward and looked up to
see where it had come from. The chimney was so very wide that this was
easy enough. She could see where the mortar had fallen from the side and
left a white patch.

"How white it looks against the black!" said Jem; "it is like a white
brick among the black ones. What a queer place a chimney is! I can see a
bit of the blue sky, I think."

And then a funny thought came into her fanciful little head. What a many
things were burned in the big fireplace and vanished in smoke or tinder
up the chimney! Where did everything go? There was Flora, for
instance--Flora who was represented on the frontispiece--with lovely,
soft, flowing hair, and a little fringe on her pretty round forehead,
crowned with a circlet of daisies, and a laugh in her wide-awake round
eyes. Where was she by this time? Certainly there was nothing left of her
in the fire. Jem almost began to cry again at the thought.

"It was too bad," she said. "She was so pretty and funny, and I did
like her so."

I daresay it scarcely will be credited by unbelieving people when I tell
them what happened next, it was such a very singular thing, indeed.

Jem felt herself gradually lifted off her little footstool.

"Oh!" she said, timidly, "I feel very light." She did feel light, indeed.
She felt so light that she was sure she was rising gently in the air.

"Oh," she said again, "how--how very light I feel! Oh, dear, I'm going
up the chimney!"

It was rather strange that she never thought of calling for help, but she
did not. She was not easily frightened; and now she was only wonderfully
astonished, as she remembered afterwards. She shut her eyes tight and
gave a little gasp.

"I've heard Aunt Hetty talk about the draught drawing things up the
chimney, but I never knew it was as strong as this," she said.

She went up, up, up, quietly and steadily, and without any uncomfortable
feeling at all; and then all at once she stopped, feeling that her feet
rested against something solid. She opened her eyes and looked about her,
and there she was, standing right opposite the white brick, her feet on a
tiny ledge.

"Well,"