ld to have you here again."

This sad prospect was too much for the sensitive Bernadine. "Don't,
Beth," she whimpered. "You frighten me."

"Oh, you mustn't be frightened," said Beth encouragingly. "When people
up on a height like this get frightened, they always roll off. Do you
feel as if the roof were moving?" she exclaimed, suddenly clutching
hold.

Bernadine fell down flat on her face with a dismal howl.

"Let's be cats now," said Beth. "I'll say miew-ow-ow, and you
oo-oo-owl-hiss-ss-ss."

"Don't, Beth. I want to go back."

"Come along then," said Beth.

"I can't. I daren't move."

"Oh, nonsense," said Beth; "just follow me. I shall go and leave you
if you don't. You shouldn't have come up if you were afraid."

"You made me," Bernadine whimpered with her eyes shut.

"Of course it was me!" said Beth, on her way back to the skylight.
"You haven't a will of your own, I suppose!"

"You aren't leaving me, Beth!" Bernadine cried in an agony. "Don't go!
I'm frightened! Help me down! I'll tell mamma!"

"Then there you'll sit, tell-pie-tit," Beth chanted, as she let
herself down through the skylight.

Presently she appeared on the other side of the street, and performed
a war-dance of delight as she looked up at her sister, prone upon the
roof-ridge.

"You do look so funny, Bernadine," she cried. "Your petticoats are
nohow; and you seem to have only one leg, and it is so long and thin!"

Bernadine howled aloud. Mrs. Caldwell was not at home; but the cry
brought Mrs. Davy out in her spectacles. When she saw the child's
dangerous predicament, she seized Beth and shook her emphatically.

"Oh, thank you," said Beth.

"What 'a' you bin doin' now, you bad girl?" said Mrs. Davy. "Hold on,
missy," she called up to Bernadine. "We'll soon 'ave ye down. You're
all right! You'll not take no 'arm."

Harriet now came running out, wringing her hands, and uttering
hysterical exclamations.

"Shut up, you fool," said Mrs. Davy.

Doors opened all the way down the street, and a considerable crowd had
soon collected. Beth, quite detached from herself, leant against the
orchard-wall and watched the people with interest.

How to get the child down was the difficulty, as there was no ladder
at hand long enough to reach up to the roof.

"I'll go and fetch her down if you like," said Beth.

"I should think so! and then there'd be two of you," said Mrs. Davy.

"I don't see how you'll manage it then," said Beth. "There is