Pomp drew his cricket to, the clock, and, opening it, tried to reach up to the face.

But he was not yet high enough.

He tried a chair, and still required a greater elevation.

Espying Frank's Latin dictionary, he pressed that into service.
By and by Frank and his mother heard the clock striking an unusual number of times.
"What is the matter with the clock ?" inquired Mrs.Frost.
"I don't know," said Frank unsuspiciously.
"It has struck ten times, and it is only four o' clock." "I wonder if Pomp can have got at it," said Frank, with a sudden thought.
He ran downstairs hastily.
Pomp heard him coming, and in his anxiety to escape detection, contrived to lose his balance and fall to the floor.

As he fell, he struck the table, on which a pan of sour milk had been placed, and it was overturned, deluging poor Pomp with the unsavory fluid.
Pomp shrieked and kicked most energetically.