he Russian woman's inquiries. "'Tis two of 'em I found mesilf
on the floor when I cleared up the mess from the fireplace this
morning. 'Twas two bits of brass. See, I saved 'em," and she shook
from a scooped-out gourd which served as an ornament on the mantel two
bits of metal.

"Was it like these, Vladdy?" she asked, but Vladimir was too tired of
being questioned and ran away without answering.

His mother shook her head as she gazed at the bits lying on her palm.

"Not worth all these moneys," she murmured as she counted forty cents
in the small coins in her other hand. It was a mystery.

Moya put the bits of brass back into the gourd and went on with her
dusting.

Mrs. Schuler telephoned to Mr. Emerson early in the morning, telling
him of the damage to the house and asking him to come and see what had
happened go that the bricklayers might be set to work as soon as
possible.

"I'm afraid to let Moya light the kitchen stove until I'm sure the
chimney is sound," she explained.

Mr. Emerson telephoned the news to his grandchildren and he and all the
Mortons with Dorothy and her mother and Miss Merriam and Elisabeth
arrived at the farm at almost the same time.

"I'm glad the house is in as good condition as it seems to be,"
exclaimed Mrs. Morton. "I couldn't bear to have the old homestead fall
to ruin. I was startled at Father's message."

"Not so startled as all the people here were in the night," laughed her
father who had been talking with Mrs. Schuler. "It seems that the
worst noise came after the electric storm was over, but while the wind
was at its highest."

"The chimney wasn't struck by lightning, then."

"It was not lightning," asserted Mr. Schuler. "The wind knocked bricks
from the top of the chimney. I saw one or two on the roof this
morning. As you see, several fell down the chimney into the fireplace."

"I can't see how bricks from the top of the chimney could have made the
crack in the kitchen side of the chimney and this crack in the back of
the fireplace."

"Nor I," agreed Mr. Schuler. "The roar was tremendous. I could not
believe that I was seeing rightly when I beheld only these few fallen
bricks."

"It sounded as if the whole chimney had fallen," Mrs. Schuler confirmed
her husband's assertion.

"Mrs. Peterson says it sounded to her like an explosion, sir," said
Moya, who had been talking with the women on the porch. "Her room is
right over this. The bricks fell throug