Not that any one could be blamed for laughing. Jimmy was a comical
object. In carrying away a chimney which did not belong to him, he had
of course torn his clothes frightfully and left big pieces sticking on
the broken wires of the roof. A more "raggety" boy never was seen.

"Wouldn't he make a good scarecrow?" said the landlord, shaking his
sides. "Jimmum, chimney, and all!"

It was necessary to tear his clothes still more in order to get them
free from the tangle of wires. As the poor young culprit crept
unwillingly back to the hotel all the cats, dogs, donkeys, and chickens
in Castle Cliff seemed to combine in a chorus of mewing, barking,
braying, and cackling to inform the whole world that here was a boy who
had stolen a chimney!

What wretched little beggar was this coming to the house? No one thought
of its being Jimmy Dunlee.

"We caught this young rogue stealing a chimney," said Mr. Templeton.

It seemed funny at first, and the Dunlees and Sanfords and Hales all
laughed heartily, till it occurred to them that the dear child had been
in actual danger; and then they drew long breaths and shuddered,
thinking how he might have pitched headlong to the ground and been
crushed by the weight of the chimney.

"But my little son," asked Mrs. Dunlee presently, when the child was
once more respectably clad, and was walking down to dinner between
herself and Aunt Vi, "but my little son, what could have possessed you
to climb a roof? Was that a nice thing to do?"