'Oh, bless him, he'll break his neck, the wood's just tinder! I can't
look at him.'

And here Nancy, who loved to have anything, bad or good, to tell,
caught sight of Angel and came flying to meet her.

'Oh please, Miss Angelica,' she panted, 'the young gentleman's up the
tree and he won't come down nor they can't fetch him, and Mrs. Taylor
says he's safe to break his neck, miss--nothing can't save him.'

And then came Betty in a flood of tears.

'Angel, tell him to come down, tell him to come down; he won't listen
to me; he'll be killed, he'll be killed!'

'Safe to be!' echoed all the women, as Angel reached the group.

Naughty Godfrey was up the tree in a place that certainly seemed unsafe
enough. He was astride upon a bough that did indeed look fearfully
rotten, and, though the men below would gladly have gone after him, no
one heavier than the slim little boy could have climbed up there in
safety.

'The wonder is how he got there, not being a cat,' remarked Ware the
miller, who was of a rather dismal turn of mind, 'but he'll want nine
lives if he's to get down with a whole skin.'

Angel turned pale as she looked up at him, but she called to him
quietly, 'Godfrey, come down at once.'

Godfrey looked down at the sound of her voice, and she thought he
looked rather scared.

'I'm going to stop up here,' he said.

'No, you are to come down,' said Angel gravely.

He made a little movement as if he were coming, resting his toe for an
instant on a lower bough. As he did so the rotten wood snapped and the
branch came down at Angel's feet, leaving Godfrey astride on the bough
above, with his feet dangling, while his own seat cracked dangerously.
There was a fresh chorus from below.

'The bough's breaking; come down, sir, come down!'

'No, don't move, sir, it'll break if you do; don't stir for your life!'

'Godfrey, keep quite still'--this was from Angel. 'Betty, don't cry;
please all of you be quiet, you startle him.'

'Right for you, Miss Angelica,' said the innkeeper; 'hold your tongues,
you stupids, if you can. Get into the house and fetch a couple of
mattresses and put them here, and look alive about it, will you?'

'You'd best stand a bit back, Miss Angelica,' said the miller, 'else
you'll have young master on your head, and there'll be two of you. I'd
go up after him if it wouldn't come hard on my wife and six children,
one in arms. One must mind one's neck a bit when one's a father,
miss