Contemplation brought no
reply, and shocked at my own thoughts, I put the question by for
steadier brains than mine; and instead of trying further to solve it,
cast about how I was to gain entrance into this deserted building;
for to enter it I was more than ever determined, now that I had heard
to whom it had once belonged.
Examining with a glance the several roads that branched off in every
direction from where I stood, I found them all equally deserted. Even
the school children had disappeared in some one of the four or five
houses scattered in the remote distance.
If I was willing to enter upon any daring exploit, there was no one to
observe or interrupt. I resolved to make the attempt with which my
mind was full. This was to climb the old tree, and from one of the
two or three branches that brushed against the house, gain entrance at
an open garret window that stared at me from amid the pine's dark
needles. Taking off my coat with a sigh over the immaculate condition
of my new cassimere trousers, I bent my energies to the task. A
difficult one you will say for a city lad, but thanks to fortune I
was not brought up in New York, and know how to climb trees with the
best. With little more than a scratch or so, I reached the window of
which I have spoken, and after a moment spent in regaining my breath,
gave one spring and accomplished my purpose.
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