"Is anybody there?" asked Mirabell's father.

"I'se heah!" exclaimed Jim, as he slowly arose. "I was bringin' back
de Calico Clown, an' I 'mos' fell into a big hole."

"There, Father! I told you that hole ought to be covered up!"
exclaimed Mirabell's mother, who had also come to the door.

"Oh, no'm! I didn't fall in!" answered Jim, who heard what was said.
"But I almos' did, an' I guess de Clown he fell in complete an'
altogether."

"The Clown? What do you mean?" asked Daddy.

"De Clown what got in Mammy's basket of wash," explained the little
colored boy.

By this time he had picked himself up, and in the light that streamed
out from the open door of the house he saw the hole into which he had
so nearly fallen. It was a hole dug by a man who had come to fix the
sewer pipes that day, and when night came he had not finished. He left
a deep, wide, gaping hole just beside the front walk.

Arnold, Mirabell and the others in the house knew of the hole, and
kept away from it. In the daylight, when Mandy had taken away the
wash, she had seen it and had not fallen in. But poor Jim, coming
after dark, had stumbled in the thick grass and had nearly plumped
himself in.