UP THE CHIMNEY. 



LYING flat upon my back on my bedroom 

 floor, with my head in the fireplace, pillowed 

 upon the andirons, and my gaze directed in- 

 tently up the chimney, I watched, hour by hour, 

 the strange domestic doings of two of my tenants. 

 The fireplace was so arranged, and its opening 

 into the chimney so shaped, that I could see 

 much of that part of the interior of the chimney 

 which rose above me, leading toward the little 

 patch of blue sky far away. The whole of the 

 west wall of the black flue and a little more 

 than half of both the north and south walls were 

 visible to me. The surface of these walls was 

 rough, having been daubed with mortar which 

 formed undulations and ridges. The lower faces 

 of these irregularities were soft, dull black, but 

 the parts inclined toward the sky caught the 

 glare of light from above and shone as though 

 ebonized. About eight feet above me, as I lay 

 in the second-story fireplace, something about 

 the size of half a small saucer projected like a 

 tree fungus from the northern wall of the flue. 

 Its edges gleamed like silvery gelatin, and light 



