high piping voice. "Going
to take a sail through the air, was he? You'll have to build him a
balloon, eh?"

"I think he had better stay on the ground after this."

"He must be a high-flyer of a cat," and the old man chuckled over his
joke.

"Will you lend me a ladder?" went on Bert.

"Certainly, my lad. The ladder is in the cow-shed yonder. But you'll
have to raise it yourself, or get somebody to raise it for you. My back
is too old and stiff for such work."

"I'll try it alone first," answered the boy.

He soon had the long ladder out and was dragging it across the common.
It was very heavy and he wondered who he could get to help him raise it.
Just then Danny Rugg came along.

"What are you doing with old Roscoe's ladder?" he asked.

Bert was on the point of telling Danny it was none of his business, but
he paused and reflected. He wanted no more quarrels with the big boy.

"I am going to get our cat down from the barn roof," he answered.

"Humph!"

"Do you want to help me raise the ladder, Danny?"

"Me? Not much! You can raise your own ladder."

"All right, I will, if you don't want to help me," said Bert, the blood
rushing to his face.

"So that's your cat, is it?" cried Danny, looking toward the barn. "I
wouldn't have such a black beast as that! We've got a real Maltese at
our house."

"We like Snoop very much," answered Bert, and went on with his ladder.

Danny hunted for a stone, and watching his chance threw it at Snoop. It
landed close to the kitten's side and made Snoop run to the other side
of the barn roof.

"Stop that, Danny Rugg!" cried a voice from the other end of the common,
and Nan appeared. She had just heard about the happening to Snoop and
was hurrying to the spot to see if she could be of assistance.

"Oh, go on with your old cat!" sneered Danny, and shuffled off past Mr.
Roscoe's house.

The old man had come out to see what Bert was going to do with the
ladder, and now he came face to face with Danny Rugg.

"Well, is it possible!" murmured the old man to himself. "That boy must
belong around here after all!"

When Bert reached the barn he found a dozen boys collected, and several
volunteered to assist him in raising the long ladder. It was hard work,
and once the ladder slipped, but in the end it rested against the barn
roof and then Bert went up in a hurry.

"Come, Snoop!" he called, and the kitten came and perched himself on
Bert's shoulder.

When Bert came down th