iron bars, and
those on one side looked over the dam, while the others were in the wall
that abutted on the lane leading down to the little river.

Piter had been with me all through my walk round, but, seeing me settle
down, he had leaped on to the hot ashes and proceeded to curl himself up
in a nice warm place, where the probabilities were that he would soon
begin to cook.

Piter had been corrected for this half a dozen times over, but he had to
be bullied again, and leaping off the hot ashes he had lowered his tail
and trotted back to his kennel, where he curled himself up.

All was very still as I sat there, except that the boom and throb of the
busy town where the furnaces and steam-engines were at work kept going
and coming in waves of sound; and as I sat, I found myself thinking
about the beauty of the steel that my uncles had set themselves to
produce; and how, when a piece was snapped across, breaking like a bit
of glass, the fracture looked all of a silvery bluish-grey.

Then I began thinking about our tall chimney, and what an unpleasant
place mine would be to sit in if there were a furious storm, and the
shaft were blown down; and then, with all the intention to be watchful,
I began to grow drowsy, and jumping up, walked up and down the
furnace-house and round the smouldering fire, whose chimney was a great
inverted funnel depending from the open roof.

I grew tired of walking about and sat down again, to begin thinking once
more.

How far is it from thinking to sleeping and dreaming? Who can answer
that question?

To me it seemed that I was sitting thinking, and that as I thought there
in the darkness, where I could see the fire throwing up its feeble glow
on to the dim-looking open windows on either side, some great animal
came softly in through the window on my left, and then disappeared for a
few moments, to appear again on my right where the wall overlooked the
lane.

That window seemed to be darkened for a minute or two, and then became
light again, while once more that on my left grew dark, and I saw the
figure glide out.

I seemed, as I say, to have been thinking, and as I thought it all
appeared to be a dream, for it would have been impossible for any one to
have crept in at one window, passing the furnace and back again without
disturbing me.

Yes; I told myself it was all fancy, and as I thought I told myself that
I started awake, and looked sharply at first one window, and then at