ready for a frolic.

"I stump you to catch me!" said Nate.

"Poh, I can catch you and not half try."

Jimmy-boy was agile, Nate rather heavily built and clumsy. But if Jimmy
had suspected what a foolhardy project was in Nate's mind he would have
held back from the race.

As it was, they both planted themselves against a tree, shouted, "One,
two, three!" and off they started. No one was watching, no one
remembered afterward which way they were going.

VIII

STEALING A CHIMNEY

The "knitting-woman" sat knitting in her chamber that looked up the
mountain side, and thinking how the zebra kitten had suffered from her
enemy, the clam. Mrs. McQuilken's own cats were most of them asleep; the
blind canary was eating her supper of hemp-seed; and the noisy magpie
had run off to chat with the dog and hens. The room seemed remarkably
quiet. Mrs. McQuilken narrowed two stitches and glanced out of the
window.

"Mercy upon us!" she exclaimed, though there was not a soul to hear her.
"Mercy upon us, what are those boyoes doing atop of that house?"

In her astonishment she actually dropped her knitting-work on the floor
and rushed out of the room crying, "Fire!" though there was not a spark
of fire to be seen.

The "boyoes" were Nate and Jimmy. Nate had said to Jimmy just as they
started on the race:--

"You won't dare follow where I lead;" and Jimmy, stung by the defiant
tone, had answered:--

"Poh, yes, I will! Who's afraid?" never once suspecting that Nate was
going to climb the ridge-pole of a house!

The house was a small cabin painted green, but there were people living
in it, and nothing could be ruder than to storm it in this way, as both
boys knew.

"Why, Nate why, _Nate_, what are you doing?"

"Ho, needn't come if you're scared," retorted Nate.

"Who said I was scared? But I'm not your 'caddy,' I won't go another
step," gasped Jimmy.

Still he did not stop climbing. Hadn't Nate "stumped" him; and hadn't he
"taken the stump," agreeing to follow his lead? Besides, Nate was
already on the roof, and it was necessary to catch him at once.

Jimmy reached the roof easily enough and darted toward Nate with both
arms out-stretched. But by that time Nate had turned around and begun to
slide down another ridge-pole, shouting:--

"Here, my caddy, here I am; catch me, caddy!"

It was most exasperating. Jimmy saw that he had been outwitted. On the
solid earth, running a fair race, the chances were that he c