ould have
beaten Nate. But was this a fair race?

"No, I'll leave it out to anybody if it's fair! Nate Pollard is the
meanest boy in California," thought angry Jimmy, as he started to follow
his leader down the ridge-pole.

At this moment something hit him just below the knee and held him fast.
In his haste he had not stopped to notice that the chimney was of the
very sort he had just described to Lucy--built of tiles and held on to
the roof by wires. He was caught in these wires; and whenever he tried
to move he found he was actually pulling the chimney after him! Nate,
safely landed on the ground, called back to him in triumph:--

"Hello, Jimmy-cum-jim! Hello, my caddy! Where are you? Why don't you
come along?"

Jimmy was coming as fast as he could. He lay face downward, sliding
along toward the edge of the roof, and carrying with him that most
undesirable chimney! What would become of him if he should fall
head-first with the chimney on his back?

It was a rough scramble; but he managed to turn over before he reached
the ground--so that he landed on his feet. The chimney landed near him,
a wreck. Jimmy was unhurt except for a few scratches. But oh, it was
dreadful to hear himself laughed at, not only by that mischievous Nate,
but by half a dozen other boys and a few grown people, who had collected
on the spot; among them the landlord and Mrs. McQuilken.

Not that any one could be blamed for laughing. Jimmy was a comical
object. In carrying away a chimney which did not belong to him, he had
of course torn his clothes frightfully and left big pieces sticking on
the broken wires of the roof. A more "raggety" boy never was seen.

"Wouldn't he make a good scarecrow?" said the landlord, shaking his
sides. "Jimmum, chimney, and all!"

It was necessary to tear his clothes still more in order to get them
free from the tangle of wires. As the poor young culprit crept
unwillingly back to the hotel all the cats, dogs, donkeys, and chickens
in Castle Cliff seemed to combine in a chorus of mewing, barking,
braying, and cackling to inform the whole world that here was a boy who
had stolen a chimney!

What wretched little beggar was this coming to the house? No one thought
of its being Jimmy Dunlee.

"We caught this young rogue stealing a chimney," said Mr. Templeton.

It seemed funny at first, and the Dunlees and Sanfords and Hales all
laughed heartily, till it occurred to them that the dear child had been
in actual d