which might be easily effected by blowing up a part of the rock with
gunpowder, laying on a quantity of fine mould, and covering the whole
with an elegant stratum of turf.

Squire Headlong caught with avidity at this suggestion, and as he had
always a store of gunpowder in the house, he insisted on commencing
operations immediately. Accordingly, he bounded back to the house and
speedily returned, accompanied by the little butler and half a dozen
servants and labourers with pickaxes and gunpowder, a hanging stove, and
a poker, together with a basket of cold meat and two or three bottles of
Madeira.

Mr. Milestone superintended the proceedings. The rock was excavated, the
powder introduced, the apertures strongly blockaded with fragments of
stone; a long train was laid to a spot sufficiently remote from the
possibility of harm, and the squire seized the poker, and applied the
end of it to the train.

At this critical moment Mr. Cranium and Mr. Panscope appeared at the top
of the tower, which, unseeing and unseen, they had ascended on the
opposite side to that where the squire and Mr. Milestone were conducting
their operations. Their sudden appearance a little dismayed the squire,
who, however, comforted himself with the reflection that the tower was
perfectly safe, and that his friends were in no probable danger but of a
knock on the head from a flying fragment of stone.

The explosion took place, and the shattered rock was hurled into the air
in the midst of fire and smoke. The tower remained untouched, but the
influence of sudden fear had so violent an effect on Mr. Cranium, that
he lost his balance, and alighted in an ivy bush, which, giving way