"How very extraordinary," exclaimed Aunt Eleanor. "It cannot be the wind."
She opened the front door; and as she did so, Judkins appeared with the sweep—a respectable and highly intelligent individual, who had been in practice more than half a century.
"I am glad that you are come," said Aunt Eleanor; "our chimnies are sadly out of order."
"It theemth ath though they voth," observed Chokes, who was blessed with a lisp of incomparable sweetness. "And yet it ithn't vethy long thinth they voth done. Vith one ith the vortht mum?"
"They appear to be all alike."
"Then there mutht be thomethin wrong. But vith do you vont firtht."
"The kitchen perhaps had better be done first."
"Vethy good."
"But be as quick as possible, there's a good man."
To the kitchen Chokes accordingly proceeded with Judkins, and found it comparatively clear, and while he was examining the chimney, Aunt Eleanor went into Sylvester's room, the only room in the house which was then free from smoke.
"Vy there ithn't muth thut in thith thimbly," cried Chokes. "There theemth to be nothin amith vith thith."
"There must be something amiss with it," cried cook; "that's all nonsense."
Chokes would have begged of her to allow him to know his own business, but as he had no desire to be discourteous, he merely looked as if he meant it.
"I thay," said he, "there ithn't thut enough in thith thimbley to make it thmoke. But I like to go about thingth thilent and phillethophical. How did the thmoke come down? all of a heap?"
"It come down in one mask," replied cook.
"I thee," said Chokes, with intelligence beaming in his eye. "Vethy good, then there muth in that cathe be thomethin amith with the pot."
He then walked with all his characteristic coolness into the garden, and having stationed himself tranquilly, perceived that every pot had been covered with a sack.
"There it ith," said he, waving his hand gracefully; "thatth the thtate of thingth."
"Why blarm their carcasses!" cried Judkins. "What'll they be up to next, I wonder! Now, who could have done this?"
"Who!" echoed cook, with a significant glance at Judkins. "You ask who! I could guess!" she added, emphatically. "Oh! I could guess!"
"Why you don't mean to guess that I did it, do you?"
"Them sacks there couldn't have been put upon them pots without hands!"
"Thatth vethy clear," said Chokes.
"Clear!—it is clear!—and missis shall know of it this moment!"
"Go away, woman," said Judkins, severely, as cook rushed in to tell
