this
flattery, or he may have had troubles of his own which needed
comforting. Since his arrival at Marsden, life had not been all
chop-bones for him any more than it had been all catnip for Sir Philip,
and the short, gay bark with which he now responded to his mistress' cry
proved their mutual satisfaction.

At last, Katharine's cautious passage came to a pause as her fingers
touched the ladder, but she realized that a misstep would send her over
that precipice of hay into the bay below, which now seemed a gulf of
unfathomable depth. Inch by inch, with greater prudence than she had
ever exercised, she moved onward in the gloom, now become almost
impenetrable, till she got one foot upon a round of the ladder.

"That's good. But I guess I'd see better if I closed my eyes, and I must
go down it backwards. Now I've both feet on and--dear me! How far it is
between steps. Why don't people put their rounds closer together, so
they wouldn't be so hard to climb? I was never on a ladder before except
a step one, and that not often, and--But I'll manage."

Manage she did and very well, until she had nearly reached the bottom.
Then, pushing her foot downward where one of the rounds had been broken
out, it found nothing to rest upon though she stretched it to her
utmost, and all at once everything seemed to give way and she fell
backwards. Fortunately, the distance was so slight and the bay so
carpeted with hay that no serious harm resulted; and when a cold wet
nose was thrust into her face she sprang to her feet, catching Punch in
her arms and in her great relief caressing him till he rebelled and
wriggled himself free.

The wind did not roar so loudly down there, and, presently, she could
hear things; the sound of somebody moving about on the barn floor, the
opening and shutting of feed-boxes and stalls, the swish of fodder
forked to the cows in the shed beyond, and could also see the gleam of
lantern-light as it was carried to and fro.

"Hello!" cried Katharine, hurrying to the square window through which
she and Montgomery had leaped into the deep bay, but whose lower frame
even was so far above her head that she could only touch it by
stretching her arms to their utmost. She had thought it a big jump then
and had not considered how she was to return, but now the full
difficulty of the situation presented itself, and her heart sank.

"Oh, Punchy, dearest! I guess this is a good deal like Susanna's saying,
'out of the fr