e door he was locking.

"I guess I'll go round to the back part of the house," thought Ben,
"perhaps I can get in the same way I came out."

Accordingly he went round and managed to clamber upon the roof, which
was only four feet from the ground. But a brief trial served to convince
our young adventurer that it is a good deal easier sliding down a roof
than it is climbing up. The shingles being old were slippery, and though
the ascent was not steep, Ben found the progress he made was very much
like that of a man at the bottom of a well, who is reported as falling
back two feet for every three that he ascended. What increased the
difficulty of his attempt was that the soles of his shoes were well
worn, and slippery as well as the shingles.

"I never can get up this way," Ben concluded, after several fruitless
attempts; "I know what I'll do," he decided, after a moment's
perplexity; "I'll pull off my shoes and stockings, and then I guess I
can get along better."

Ben accordingly got down from the roof, and pulled off his shoes and
stockings. As he wanted to carry these with him, he was at first
a little puzzled by this new difficulty. He finally tied the shoes
together by the strings and hung them round his neck. He disposed of the
stockings by stuffing one in each pocket.

"Now," thought Ben, "I guess I can get along better. I don't know what
to do with the plaguy sheet, though."

But necessity is the mother of invention, and Ben found that he could
throw the sheet over his shoulders, as a lady does with her shawl. Thus
accoutered he recommenced the ascent with considerable confidence.

He found that his bare feet clung to the roof more tenaciously than
the shoes had done, and success was already within his grasp, when an
unforeseen mishap frustrated his plans. He had accomplished about three
quarters of the ascent when all at once the string which united the
shoes which he had hung round his neck gave way, and both fell with a
great thump on the roof. Ben made a clutch for them in which he lost his
own hold, and made a hurried descent in their company, alighting with
his bare feet on some flinty gravel stones, which he found by no means
agreeable.

"Ow!" ejaculated Ben, limping painfully, "them plaguy gravel stones
hurt like thunder. I'll move 'em away the first thing to-morrow. If that
confounded shoe-string hadn't broken I'd have been in bed by this time."

Meanwhile Hannah had been sitting over the kitchen