CURIOUS ADVENTURE IN A CHIMNEY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3567, 14 December 1882, Page 4

CURIOUS ADVENTURE IN A CHIMNEY.

A rather queer adventure (says the Cardiff Mail) befell a boy in Newtown on Monday. The roofs of some houses were undergoing xepaufe After the shades of night had fallen and r? ffie workmen had gone home, a boy espied a ladder leaning against one of the liousee by which the workmen had reached the roof. The urchin being of a rather mia«

chievous turn of mind, gathered a pocketful of stones, and, his face beaming with joy, he quietly mounted the ladder and.clambered up the roof of a house which he knew to be occupied by an old woman. After many slips he at length reached his goal; which was no other than the chimney. But there he found another obstacle in his way. Before he could throw a single stone down the chimney, -he would have to climb .up to the top of the brick-work. By much exertion he overcame this difficulty He balanced his body nicely on. the top. Now for the fun ! A stone he threw with all his might down the chimney, and fairly chuckled with glee. When lo! sad to relate, Ma enthusiasm carried him too far, and he overbalanced and fell down the chimney head foremost. The domestis funnel had not been recently swept, and things went pretty smoothly with the unlucky urchin till he came to the bottom, when, to avoid the fire, he grazed his face and shins on the bars of the grate. The venerable occupier of the house was afc the fireside reading a newspaper by the candle-light. Her feelings on seeing a live black object clothed in soot come bounding on the hearth out of the chimney may be tetter imagined than described. She afterwards said her impression at the time was that one of the old gentleman's imps had come after her. While she screamed for help the black visitor disappeared through the door.