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[Illustration]

He jumped right up into the fire-place, balancing himself upon the iron
bar where the kettle hangs.

[Illustration]

Tom Kitten took another big jump off the bar, and landed on a ledge high
up inside the chimney, knocking down some soot into the fender.

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Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke; and he could hear the
sticks beginning to crackle and burn in the fire-place down below. He
made up his mind to climb right to the top, and get out on the slates,
and try to catch sparrows.

"I cannot go back. If I slipped I might fall in the fire and singe my
beautiful tail and my little blue jacket."

The chimney was a very big old-fashioned one. It was built in the days
when people burnt logs of wood upon the hearth.

The chimney stack stood up above the roof like a little stone tower, and
the daylight shone down from the top, under the slanting slates that
kept out the rain.

[Illustration]