Then he stopped and grinned like a mischievous lad.  He had caught sight of an old water-meter that had been used as an exhibit in a case he had once tried against the city in behalf of an inventor, who had been led to believe that the water board would adopt his patent and compel every householder to buy one for the registration of water consumed.  What fun it would be to take that apart, he thought, and thinking thus was enough to set him about the task.  He locked his door, moved the strange-looking contrivance out into the middle of the room, and tried to unscrew the top of it with his eraser.  The delicate blade of this improvised screw-driver snapped off in an instant, whereupon Jarley tried the scissors, with similar results.  After a half-hour of this he gave up the idea of taking the meter apart, but his soul immediately became possessed of another idea, which was to see if it worked.  The pursuit of this brought him the most deliriously joyful sensations; and for an hour he devoted himself to filling the machine up with water drawn from a faucet at one side of his room, and poured into the meter from a drinking-glass.  It was not until the hour was up that he observed that the water after passing through the meter came out upon the carpet, and it is probable that even then he would not have noticed it had not the tenants below sent up to inquire if there was not something wrong with the water-pipes overhead.

When Jarley realized what had happened he wisely determined to give up business for the day.  While the spirit of Jack was within him, the business he might transact was not likely to prove of value to himself or to any one else.  So he put on his hat and coat, called a cab, and started for home.  His experiences in the cab were quite of a kind with the experiences of the morning, and attended with no little personal danger.  He would lean against the cab door and put his arm out and try to touch horse-cars as they passed.  Once or twice he nearly had his head knocked off by sticking it out of the windows; but by some happy chance he got interested in the cab curtains and the inviting little strings, which, when pulled, made them fly up with a snap.  Absorbed in this occupation, he drove on, and gave up all such dangerous experiments as playing tag with horse-cars and trucks, and arrived at home in time for luncheon unhurt.

Mrs. Jarley was somewhat alarmed at the unexpected return of Mr. Jarley, but was content with his explanation that while he never felt better in his life, he deemed it best to return and attend to his work in the privacy of his own home.  For the proper accomplishment of this work he said that he thought he would use Jack’s nursery on the attic floor, where he could be quiet, and he asked as an especial favor that he might be left alone with Jack for the balance of the day.