Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/109

Rh wonderful feats rather than engage in the dull inferior exercise within their powers.

Being so simple-minded and good-natured, Sheldon enjoyed the homage of the children;  he would perform for them unceasingly.

Late one afternoon, when Edward had dressed and was about to leave the building,  he paused in the doorway; at one side stood  Mr. Barclay and Mr. Elwood; they did not  notice Edward, for they were absorbed in  watching Sheldon—as was nearly every one  on the floor of the gymnasium.

At the farther end of the room two ladders, inclined toward each other, rose almost to the ceiling and were connected at the top by a  horizontal ladder. Sheldon was going up the inside of one of the slanting ladders—not  going up hand over hand, but jerking himself  up with both hands simultaneously, jumping  as it were in air from rung to rung. He was doing it very fast; the loud slap, slap of his  hands, as they caught and then let go, resounded explosively in the silent room.

He reached a height from which to fall