286 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [v1.

 

time, and showed their resentment in this manner, being
the only way which stairs have of expressing their
feelings. At the top he paused, and found himself in
a good-sized lobby, from which passages ran right and ~
left, and immediately in front of him were three doors.
Remembering the old Latin proverb, that the middle
is the safest place, he tried the handle of the middle
door, and entered a room which had evidently been a
bed-room, and, for the matter of that, was one still.
An ancient bedstead occupied one corner, a still more
ancient wardrobe filled another, a rickety old table stood
opposite the fireplace, while several chairs, in a state
of worm-eaten dilapidation, constituted the only other
furniture of the apartment. It was altogether rather
a comfortless place to look at, but at all events it was
a better spot to sleep in than the open air, and the
traveller had no doubt that matters would mend if he
could only light a fire and eat the supper for which
he was beginning to be more than anxious.

The fire did not seem to have been lighted in that
room for some time past, but that was no reason why
the fireplace should not be put to its proper use; and
as the old chairs appeared to be fit for little else than
fuel, for which they would serve most admirably, the
traveller determined to lose no time in setting about
the matter, and endeavouring to make himself as com-
fortable as the circumstances of the case would permit.
There was an old stump of a poker of which he could
make use, and some of the faded hangings of the bed
would admirably supply the place of paper. He ac-
cordingly tore some off without difficulty, placed it in
the grate, then proceeded deliberately to break up one