is bed-room candlestick, which stood on one of the hall
chairs, he succeeded--not in finding the box of matches--but in knocking
it off the chair, and sending it rolling over the stone floor, until it
was stopped by the opposite wall. With some difficulty he captured it,
and struck a light. Never, in all Zack's experience, had any former
matches caught flame with such a shrill report, as was produced from
the one disastrous match which he happened to select to light his candle
with.

The next thing to be done was to bolt the door. He succeeded very well
with the bolt at the top, but failed signally with the bolt at the
bottom, which appeared particularly difficult to deal with that night.
It first of all creaked fiercely on being moved--then stuck spitefully
just at the entrance of the staple--then slipped all of a sudden, under
moderate pressure, and ran like lightning into its appointed place,
with a bang of malicious triumph. "If that doesn't bring my father
down"--thought Zack, listening with all his ears, and stifling the
hiccups with all his might--"he's a harder sleeper than I take him for."

But no door opened, no voice called, no sound of any kind broke the
mysterious stillness of the bedroom regions. Zack sat down on
the stairs, and took his boots off, got up again with some little
difficulty, listened, took his candlestick, listened once more,
whispered to himself, "Now for it!" and began the perilous ascent to his
own room.

He held tight by the banisters, only falling against them, and making
them crack from top to bottom once, before he reached the drawing-room
landing. He ascended the second flight of stairs without casualties of
any kind, until he got to the top step, close by his father's bed-room
door. Here, by a dire fatality, the stifled hiccups burst beyond all
control; and distinctly asserted themselves by one convulsive yelp,
which betrayed Zack into a start of horror. The start shook his
candlestick: the extinguisher, which lay loose in it, dropped out,
hopped playfully down the stone stairs, and rolled over the landing with
a loud and lively ring--a devilish and brazen flourish of exultation in
honor of its own activity.

"Oh Lord!" faintly ejaculated Zack, as he heard somebody's voice
speaking, and somebody's body moving, in the bed-room; and remembered
that he had to mount another flight of stairs--wooden stairs this
time--before he got to his own quarters on the garret-floor.

He went u