Midsummer Night Alarms 



for the night Billy had carefully drawn 

 down all the new and lively-running 

 shades. Of that she was certain. But, 

 see here! One of these is now up tight 

 against the roller at the top of the 

 casing! We breathed again. The 

 case was clear. At the psychological 

 moment, after the household had been 

 worked up by the episode of the cough- 

 ing cow to a keen sense of impending 

 danger, this shade with a powerful 

 spring had taken upon itself the re- 

 sponsibility of flying up in the dead 

 of night at the full limit of its utmost 

 speed. I never knew that one of 

 these rollers could cause so dire an 

 explosion. But in the still watches 

 of a noiseless night the drop of a pin 

 is sometimes as the fall of a brick. 



A neighbor across the way also had 

 some nervous members of his house- 

 hold, and proposed some time later 

 that it might be a good scheme to put 

 a night watchman on the job. As 

 it seemed to be a case of "women and 



