There was a mantelpiece in this room that Sally longed to explore, for there were candelabra on it, one at either end with two candles in each of them and dangling metal things hanging down from them that Sally longed to play with. She knew they could swing, for she saw Miss Harvey dusting them, so while Miss Harvey was dusting the table, she jumped up on the mantelpiece by way of the sofa and began to play with them. When she went back into the kitchen, she told Oxford Gray, Junior, about the charms of the friendly house. He was greatly interested when he heard of the mantelpiece with the candlesticks with the swinging pendants. ‘I think maybe Miss Harvey wouldn’t like you to touch them,’ said Sally. ‘Miss Harvey!’ He spoke a little contemptuously. ‘Why should I do any more harm than you?’ So the kittens watched their chance, and one day they slipped through the door that was left partly open so that Miss Harvey could hear the telephone in the other part of the house. Oxford Gray, Junior, hardly paused to look at anything in the other rooms. He did not care for the portraits of Miss Winifred’s ancestors. ‘They all have on such old-fashioned clothes,’ he said. ‘Our ancestors would look much more up-to-date.’ ‘That is what I thought myself,’ said Sally. Oxford and Sally went into the library where the candelabra stood on the mantelpiece. ‘There’ll be a candlestick for each of us to play with,’ said Sally. Oxford thought it would be exciting to get to the mantelpiece ahead of Sally, and Sally wanted to get there first, so they had a mad race to the sofa and then they gave a jump that landed them on the mantelpiece. Alas! the mantelpiece was not wide enough for the pair of them, and the first thing they knew was that they had knocked one of the candlesticks off the mantelpiece and had tumbled off themselves and were lying on the floor with the ruins of the broken wax candles. The kittens were very much frightened. Sally rushed under the sofa and Oxford Gray, Junior, took refuge under a chair. Elvira, who was in the kitchen, heard the noise, and came in to see what had happened. They heard her step in the hall. ‘If we are very quiet,’ said Sally, in her thought-transference language, ‘Elvira will never find us. She’ll think the candlestick just fell off of itself.’ ‘For mercy sakes!’ said Elvira, as she saw the broken candles on the floor. ‘You little rascal, what have you been doing?’ and she fixed her eyes on Oxford Gray, Junior. ‘I suppose Sally is somewhere about. Oh, yes! there she is under the sofa.’ ‘It wasn’t our fault,’ said Oxford. ‘It is just the fault of that old mantelpiece--it’s too narrow. Miss Winifred ought to have made her house more convenient for kittens.’ But, alas! Elvira couldn’t understand his language. [Illustration] CHAPTER VI SALLY AND THE CLOCK