If it had
been meant for that, it would hardly have been put half-way from the
top! I can't make it out! A hole like that in any chimney must
surely interfere with the draught! I must get a ladder!"
"Let me climb on your shoulders, Mr. Grant," said Davie.
"Come then; up you go!" said Donal.
And up went Davie, and peeped into the horizontal slit.
"It looks very like a chimney," he said, turning his head and
thrusting it in sideways. "It goes right down to somewhere," he
added, bringing his head out again, "but there is something across
it a little way down--to prevent the jackdaws from tumbling in, I
suppose."
"What is it?" asked Donal.
"Something like a grating," answered Davie; "--no, not a grating
exactly; it is what you might call a grating, but it seems made of
wires. I don't think it would keep a strong bird out if he wanted to
get in."
"Aha!" said Donal to himself; "what if those wires be tuned! Did you
ever see an aeolian harp, my lady?" he asked: "I never did."
"Yes," answered lady Arctura, "--once, when I was a little girl. And
now you suggest it, I think the sounds we hear are not unlike those
of an aeolian harp! The strings are all the same length, if I
remember. But I do not understand the principle. They seem all to
play together, and make the strangest, wildest harmonies, when the
wind blows across them in a particular way.
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