THE WATER BABIES
But Tom and his master did not go in through the great iron gates, as if they had been Dukes or Bishops, but round the back way, and a very long way round it was; and into a little back-door, where the ash-boy let them in, yawning horribly; and then in a passage the housekeeper met them in such a flowered chintz dressing-gown, that Tom mistook her for My Lady herself, and she gave Grimes solemn orders about, "You will take care of this, and take care of that," as if he was going up the
 AND BADE THEM BEGIN IN A LOFTY AND TREMENDOUS VOICE. |
chimneys, and not Tom. And Grimes listened, and said every now and then under his voice, "You'll mind that, you little beggar?" And Tom did mind, all, at least, that he could. And then the housekeeper turned them into a grand room, all covered up in sheets of brown paper, and bade them begin in a lofty and tremendous voice; and so, after a whimper or two, and a kick from his master, into the grate Tom went, and up the chimney, while a housemaid stayed in the room to watch the furniture, to whom Mr. Grimes paid many playful and chivalrous compliments, but met with very slight encouragement in return. How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot say; but he swept so many that he got quite tired, and puzzled, too, for they were not like the town flues to which he was
19
