210 THE LAND OF PLUCK

up-stairs, and just as they opened the door they heard
such a crash, and there were you and the ladder on the
floor! No,the ladder was on the feather-bed, mama said,
and you were on the floor. You must have pitched over
backward, Rob, just as the ladder slipped from under
you.”

“Very likely,” said I.

“Well, I declare! That was a caper! What a funny
little wisp of a boy you were! And to think of our
actually being married thirteen years afterward! But
what about the vase?”

“Oh, that was safe enough, you may be sure, for the
umbrella had n’t time to touch it.”

“Rob,” said Mrs. Robert, “if you had opened that ladder
a little wider, or taken a plummet up with you and been
careful to have the line of direction from the center of
eravity fall within the base of the ladder, all would have
been well, would n’t it, my—”

Just then little Rob was heard in the next room screain- °
ing like a good fellow. Off ran Mrs. Robert. I was left
alone to ponder over the laws of gravitation.