Witlie’s Nest in the Ruins. 123
times also little Mona, a girl of his own age, would
be running about ; and she also, if ‘she caught sight
of Willie, was sure to come hopping and skipping
like a bird to have a talk with him, and beg him to
take her up, which, he as often assured her, was all
but impossible. To this place Mr Spelman and
Willie climbed, and there held consultation whether
and how it could be made habitable. The main
difficulty was, how to cover it in; for although the
walls were quite sound a long way up, it lay open
tothe sky. But about ten feet over their heads they
saw the opposing holes in two of the walls where
the joists formerly sustaining the floor of the cham-
ber above had rested; and Mr Spelman thought
that, without any very large outlay either of time
or material, he could there lay a floor, as it were,
and then turn it into a roof by covering it with
cement, or pitch, or something of the sort, concern-
ing which he would take counsel with his friend
Mortimer, the mason.

“ But,” said Willie, “that would turn it into the
bottom of a cistern; for the walls above would hold
‘the rain in, and what would happen then? Either
it must gather till it reached the top, or the weight
of it would burst the walls, or perhaps break through
my roof and drown me.”

“Tt is easy to avoid that,” said Mr Spelman,
“ We have only to lay on the cement a little thicker

at one side, and slope the surface down to the other,
(416) I