"Oh! dear me! what a mess to clear up," exclaimed Mansy.
"Let me get in and see," said Alfy sturdily.
"Do take care, and don't cut yourself with the glass!" Mansy cried, as she saw him clambering up over the top sash of the window. This he had first pulled down as far as he could, and he also helped himself by the sash lines. The breaking of the glass might of course prove very dangerous, but he found another difficulty when, having climbed over the sash, he stood a-tiptoe on the bottom of the window frame inside the room, and clung for support to the top sash. How was he to descend? Inside the room was dark, but he thought he saw the gleam of water. He hesitated to jump at hazard, not knowing where he might alight.
"Lower a candle, Edie," he cried, "and then I can see my way better!"
So presently down came a lighted candle, bobbing to and fro as the little sister lowered it. Alfy caught it with one hand and held it inside the room. "Oh! what a mess," he exclaimed, as he saw the water all over the apartment, with teapot cosy, music, papers, wool-mats, and all kinds of well-known pleasant household things floating despondingly on its muddy surface.
"What shall we do?" cried Mansy from the outside. "Oh! help me to get indoors, so that I can clear up a bit!"
"I don't see yet how I am to get down, Mansy. The table is too far off for me to jump to it, and the water seems high!"
"Oh! you mustn't get in the water, Master Alfy!" shrieked poor Mansy, "Oh, I am so tired of this rockety old washin' tub! Can't you get me out, Alfy dear?"
"I'll get you out, Mansy, somehow, never fear," assented Alfy cheerily. "Now, Edie dear, can you let down a chair and some hassocks for me to stand on?"
And the busy girls above tied string to the back of a chair and carefully lowered it, and some hassocks followed.