eal of trouble with a saw and a cunningly
constructed arrangement of strings to reduce the fabric into the
similitude of a bookcase. When at last it was done and nailed to the
wall, it exhibited a tendency to tilt forward the moment anything
touched it, and pitch its contents on to the floor.

After much thought it occurred to Herapath that if they turned it upside
down this defect would operate in the other direction, and hold the
books securely against the wall. So, having wrenched the nails out, and
been fortunate enough to find a space on the wall not gaping with wounds
in the plaster, they re-erected it inversely. But, alas! although the
top shelf now tilted back at the wall, the bottom shelf swung forward an
inch or two and let its contents out behind with the same regularity and
punctuality with which it had previously ejected them in front.

Dig pronounced it a rotten concern, and voted for smashing it up; but
Herapath, more dauntless, determined on one further effort.

He began to drive a large nail vehemently into the floor immediately
under the refractory bookcase, and then, tying a string round the bottom
shelf, he hitched the other end round the nail and drew the fabric
triumphantly into the wall. It was a complete success. Even Dig
applauded, and cried out to his friend that another inch would make a
job of it.

Another inch did make a job of it, for just as the bottom shelf closed
in the top gave a spring forward, pulling the nail along with it, and
burying the two mechanics under a cascade of books, plaster, and
shattered timber. Arthur and Dig sat on the floor and surveyed the ruin
stolidly, while Smiley, evidently under the delusion that the whole
entertainment had been got up for his amusement, barked vociferously,
and, seizing a _Student's Gibbon_ in his teeth, worried it, in the
lightness of his heart, like a rat. At this juncture the door opened,
and Railsford, with alarm in his face, entered.

"Whatever _is_ the matter?" he exclaimed.

It was an excellent cue for the two boys, who forthwith began to rub
their arms and shoulders, and make a demonstration of quiet suffering.

"This horrid bookcase won't stick up!" said Arthur. "We were trying to
put the things tidy, and it came down."

"It's a pretty good weight on a fellow's arm!" said the baronet, rubbing
his limb, which had really been grazed in the downfall.

"It is a very great noise on the top of my head," said the master. "I