Sherm gritted his teeth and settled down to business. He pulled—he pushed—he jerked, but the little maids succeeded in maintaining some sort of balance. He couldn’t get the barrel over. Finally he had a happy thought. He also braced both feet against the chopping log and giving a sudden shove with all his strength sent the barrel over and the little girls sprawling in all directions at the same time.
There was a chorus of protests from Chicken Little and Katy, but Ernest and Carol acting as umpires declared that Sherm had kept his contract. Furthermore, the boys were eager to light the furnace, dry or not.
Wiping his eyes ... as the puffs came thicker.
To Chicken Little was granted the proud privilege of touching the match to the heaped-up fuel. It took five matches to do the work and when the paper and kindling finally caught, the smoke showed a disposition to pour out the door into their faces instead of puffing decorously up the chimney.
“I don’t see what ails the old thing,” said Sherman, wiping his eyes and backing off as the puffs came thicker.
“Bet there’s a crack some place near the top that spoils the draught.” Ernest was a student and strong on reasons.
“Holy smoke! I should say so,” reported Sherman, investigating. “Look at the top where the pipe goes in, you could put both hands down through the hole. Carol Brown, I thought you undertook to plaster this darned thing!”
“Well, I daubed on two bucketsful of the stuff—maybe you think it was fun to fill in all those cracks. I can’t help it if you fellows left half acre spaces between the bricks so it falls through!” complained Carol, who did not love work.