rn floor; and
therefore, to make all safe, he thought that he would shut them, too. He
accordingly shut the great doors, and put the fid into the staple. The
fid is a wooden pin, to be passed through the staple when the doors are
shut, to fasten them. The doors cannot be opened again until the fid is
taken out.

Rollo went all around the barn, trying to find some place where he could
get out; but he could not find any place at all.

"Let us go up stairs," said he, at length, to Nathan.

"O, it will not do any good to go up stairs," said Nathan. "It would
kill us to jump out the window."

"I know we can't jump out the window," said Rollo, "but perhaps we can
find out some way to get down. O, there is a ladder; I remember now,
Nathan, there is a ladder. We can get down from the window by the
ladder."

"I shall be afraid to go down the ladder," said Nathan.

"O no," said Rollo, "I will go first, and see if it is safe."

By this time they had reached the barn chamber. There was a window in
it, with glass, over the great barn door; but Rollo could not get it
open. He told Nathan that, if he could only get it open, and could find
a long pole, he could reach it down, and knock the fid out, and so open
the great doors. But, with all his efforts, he could not raise the
window.

There was another window, which had no glass, but was closed by a wooden
shutter, which opened upon hinges like a door. Rollo said he meant to
open this window. Now, it happened that this window was upon that side
of the barn which was exposed to the wind and storm; and, the moment
that Rollo had pushed open the shutter a little way, the wind forced it
instantly from his hand, and slammed it back against the side of the
barn, with great violence. It almost pulled Rollo himself out of the
window.

Nathan looked frightened. Rollo himself looked somewhat astonished at
such an unexpected effect; but presently said,--

"Well, Nathan, I rather think that, if you had had hold of that shutter,
you would have thought that air was a real thing."

"O, that was the _wind_, Rollo; that was the _wind_," said Nathan.

Rollo did not answer, but went to the ladder, which was standing up
against the hay-loft. It was a pretty long, but yet a very light ladder;
and Rollo and Nathan succeeded, after some difficulty, in getting it
down, and in running the end out of the window. When the lower end
reached the ground, the upper end was two or three feet above the