1856.] The Worsted StocUng. 293 



"And then," continued his mother, "if all goes right, we are to have 

 a frolic to-morrow, and go into the country, and take our dinners, and 

 spend all the day among the woods." 



** Hurrah ! " cried Tom, as he ran off to his father's place of work, 

 with a can of milk in one hand, and some bread in the other. His 

 mother stood in the doer watching him, as he weut merrily whistling 

 down the street ; and then she thought of the dear father he was going 

 to, and then her heart sought its sure refuge, and she prayed to God to 

 protect and bless her treasures- 

 Tom, with a light heart, pursued his way to his father, and, leaving 

 him his breakfast, went to his own work, which was at some distance. 

 In the evening, on his way home, he went round to see how his father 

 was getting on. James Howard, the father, and a number of other 

 workmen, had been building one of those lofty chimneys, which, in our 

 great manufacturing towns, almost supply the place of other architectu- 

 ral beauty. This chimney was one of the highest and most tapering 

 that had ever been erected; and as Tom, shading his eyes from the 

 slanting rays of the setting sun, looked up to the top in search of his 

 father, his heart almost sunk within him at the appalling hight. The 

 scaffold was almost all down ; the men at the bottom were removing the 

 last beams and poles. Tom's father stood alone on the top. He looked 

 around to see that everything was right ; and then, waving his hand in 

 the air, the men below answered him with a long, loud cheer, little 

 Tom shouting as heartily as any of them. As their voices died away, 

 however, they heard a very diflferent sound — a cry of alarm and horror 

 from above 1 " The rope ! the rope ! " The men looked round, and 

 coiled upon the ground lay the rope, which, before the scaffolding was 

 removed, should have been fastened to the top of the chimney, for Tom's 

 father to come down by I The scaffolding had been taken down without 

 remembering to take the rope up. There was a dead silence. They all 

 knew it was impossible to throw the rope up high enough, or skillfully 

 enough, to reach the top of the chimney ; or, if possible, it would hardly 

 have been safe. They stood in silent dismay, unable to give any help, 

 or think of any means of safety. 



And Tom's father ! He walked round and round the little circle, the 

 dizzy hight seeming every moment to grow more fearful, and the solid 

 earth further and further from him. In the sudden paroxysm of terror, 

 be lost his presence of mind, and his senses almost failed him. He shut 

 his eyes ; he felt as if, the next moment, he must be dashed to pieces on 

 the ground below. 



