so high, I can't reach them."

No opportunity, however trivial, was overlooked for a subordinate
fling at the pile.

Here, by way of introduction, it should be mentioned, that
besides the fireplaces all round it, the chimney was, in the most
haphazard way, excavated on each floor for certain curious
out-of-the-way cupboards and closets, of all sorts and sizes,
clinging here and there, like nests in the crotches of some old
oak. On the second floor these closets were by far the most
irregular and numerous. And yet this should hardly have been so,
since the theory of the chimney was, that it pyramidically
diminished as it ascended. The abridgment of its square on the
roof was obvious enough; and it was supposed that the reduction
must be methodically graduated from bottom to top.

"Mr. Scribe," said I when, the next day, with an eager aspect,
that individual again came, "my object in sending for you this
morning is, not to arrange for the demolition of my chimney, nor
to have any particular conversation about it, but simply to allow
you every reasonable facility for verifying, if you can, the
conjecture communicated in your note."

Though in secret not a little crestfallen, it may be, by my
phlegmatic reception, so different from what he had looked for;
with much apparent alacrity he commenced the survey; throwing
open the cupboards on the first floor, and peering into the
closets on the second; measuring one within, and then comparing
that measurement with the measurement without. Removing the