"How could any one set the fire in the roof?" asked Levi.
"They might have gone up there, as you did," replied the old man, rather malignantly.
"Let us go up and see how the fire took," added Levi. "Aunt Susan had a big fire in the oven."
"It couldn't ketch afire up there if she did," replied uncle Nathan, as he followed his nephew up the ladder.
Some of the boards and shingles had been burned through, but the rafters were only charred. Levi went up to the chimney and examined the woodwork near it. The house was a very old one, and had been built upon until its present proportions had been reached. The chimney, where the fire had taken, was in the most ancient part, and the bricks were laid in clay. Levi found that three or four of them, on one of the inside corners, had dropped out. This was the defect which the owner had repaired.
"There is a great hole in the chimney," said Levi.
"I know there is; but I stopped that up a month ago. I hadn't no mortar nor nothin', and I just nailed a board over the hole."
"That's the way the fire took," added Levi, wondering at the carelessness of his uncle.
"I didn't suppose there was any heat up here, twenty foot from the fire," replied the old man, sheepishly.
"Aunt Susan had a rousing fire in the oven. The wind was pretty fresh, and I suppose the sparks caught on the dry board. It is clear enough to me that no one set the house on fire."