"And smothers the fire instantly——"
"That's it exactly," said Ned.
"And smothers me in it, as well."
Ned was dumbfounded for a moment, but soon came to his senses.
"As to that," said he, "it's to be supposed that you'd run out of the house just before we put on the extinguisher. But the fact is, you've suggested an improvement already. I guess Fay must have inherited his inventive genius from you. Of course we shall have to build the extinguisher with several flaps, like tent-doors, so that if there are any people in the house, they can easily escape."
"And you think I ought to furnish that brother of yours the money necessary to make a proper muddle of this thing?"
"I should be glad if you would," said Ned.
"Well," said Aunt Mercy, "there's a piece of his work in the kitchen now. I wish you'd step out and look at it, and then tell me what you think."
Ned and I walked out to the kitchen. There stood the skeletons of half a dozen chairs—those from which we had taken the rounds to make our rope-ladder.
"Those look well, don't they?" said Aunt Mercy, who had followed us. "They belonged to my great-grandfather, and were probably not new in his time. I had them stored at your house, and yesterday I sent a furniture man to get them and polish them up for me. He brings them home in this plight, and tells me the mischief has been done recently, for the saw-cuts are all fresh. They were priceless relics; I wouldn't have taken ten dollars apiece for them; and your brother has ruined every one of them."