I walked back to the tower hastily and desperately, to face the worst that might happen before my courage cooled altogether.
On crossing the threshold of the hall door I was stopped, to my great amazement, by a procession of three of the farm-servants, followed by Morgan, all walking after each other, in Indian file, toward the spiral staircase that led to the top of the tower.

The first of the servants carried the materials for making a fire; the second bore an inverted arm-chair on his head; the third tottered under a heavy load of books; while Morgan came last, with his canister of tobacco in his hand, his dressing-gown over his shoulders, and his whole collection of pipes hugged up together in a bundle under his arm.
"What on earth does this mean ?" I inquired.
"It means taking Time by the forelock," answered Morgan, looking at me with a smile of sour satisfaction.

"I've got the start of your young woman, Griffith, and I'm making the most of it." "But where, in Heaven's name, are you going ?" I asked, as the head man of the procession disappeared with his firing up the staircase.
"How high is this tower ?" retorted Morgan.
"Seven stories, to be sure," I replied.
"Very good," said my eccentric brother, setting his foot on the first stair, "I'm going up to the seventh." "You can't," I shouted.
"_She_ can't, you mean," said Morgan, "and that's exactly why I'm going there." "But the room is not furnished." "It's out of her reach." "One of the windows has fallen to pieces." "It's out of her reach." "There's a crow's nest in the corner." "It's out of her reach." By the time this unanswerable argument had attained its third repetition, Morgan, in his turn, had disappeared up the winding stairs.
I knew him too well to attempt any further protest.
Here was my first difficulty smoothed away most unexpectedly; for here were the rooms in the lean-to placed by their owner's free act and deed at my disposal.

I wrote on the spot to the one upholsterer of our distant county town to come immediately and survey the premises, and sent off a mounted messenger with the letter.

This done, and the necessary order also dispatched to the carpenter and glazier to set them at work on Morgan's sky-parlor in the seventh story, I began to feel, for the first time, as if my scattered wits were coming back to me.
By the time the evening had closed in I had hit on no less than three excellent ideas, all providing for the future comfort and amusement of our fair guest.