128 FTistory of Gutta-Percha Willie.

 

Willie took his father by the coat, and led him
to a corner, where a hole went right through the
wall into another room—if that can be called a.
room which had neither floor nor ceiling.

“There, father!” he said; “I am going to fit a
slide over this hole, and then I can let in just as
much or as little air as I please.”

“Tt would have been better to have one at least
of the windows made to open. You will only get
the air from the ruins that way, whereas you might
- have had all the scents of Mr Shepherd’s wallflowers
and roses.”

“As soon as Mr Spelman has done with the job,”
said Willie, “I will make them both to come wide
open on hinges; but I don’t want to bother him
about it, for he has been very kind, and I can do it
quite well myself.”

This satisfied his father.

At length the floor was boarded ; a strong thick
door was fitted tight; a winding stair of deal in-
serted where the stone one had been, and cased in
with planks, well pitched on the outside; and now
Willie’s mother was busy making little muslin cur-
tains for his windows, and a carpet for the middle
of the room.

In the meantime, his father and mother had both
written to his grandmother, telling her how Willie
had been using his powers both of invention and
of labour to make room for her, and urging her to