“I’ll bet there’s a lot of soot in there,” muttered Biff.
“Besides, there’s a fire on.”
“We’ll put the fire out first, of course,” Frank said. “Well, if nobody else wants to go, I’ll do it.”
“You will certainly need a bath when you come out,” Chet told him.
“Listen.” Biff seemed a trifle ashamed because of his reluctance to enter the chimney, “It’s a sort of messy job, and Frank shouldn’t have to do it just because the rest of us don’t like the idea. Suppose we draw lots for it.”
“That’s fair enough,” Joe agreed. “The fellow who draws the short straw goes up the chimney.”
There were no straws available but the boys broke up some small sticks, leaving one considerably shorter than the others. Frank held the four sticks between the palms of his hands so that only the tops were visible. Biff drew first—one of the long sticks. Joe was next, and the drawing was abruptly terminated, for he held the short one.
“It’s up to me, I guess,” he said, with a grimace. “Oh, well. It won’t be so bad. Perhaps I’ll find a fortune in diamonds hidden inside that chimney.”
“We’ll all take turns at scrubbing you when you come out,” Chet consoled him.
“We’ll have to wait until the fire dies down, first of all.”