The little hole in the paper was then repaired by pasting another piece of paper over it, after which Andy was left alone, but with a threat from Mother Peter that if he touched the window again she would beat the life out of him.  She had no more trouble with him that day.  Every half hour or so she would come up stairs noiselessly, and listen at the door, or break in upon the child suddenly and without warning.  But she did not find him again at the window.  The restlessness at first exhibited had died out, and he sat or lay upon the floor in a kind of dull, despairing stupor.  So that day passed.

On the second day of Andy’s imprisonment he distinctly heard the old woman go out at the street door and lock it after her.  He listened for a long time, but could hear no sound in the house.  A feeling of relief and a sense of safety came over him.  He had not been so long in his prison alone without the minutest examination of every part, and it had not escaped his notice that the panes of glass in the upper sash of the window were not covered with paper, as were those below.  But for the fear of one of Mother Peter’s noiseless pouncings in upon him, he would long since have climbed upon the sill and taken a look through the upper sash.  He waited now for full half an hour to be sure that his jailer had left the house, and then, climbing to the window-sill with the agility of a squirrel, held on to the edge of the lower sash and looked out through the clear glass above.  Dreary and unsightly as was all that lay under his gaze, it was beautiful in the eyes of the child.  His little heart swelled and glowed; he longed, as a prisoner, for freedom.  As he stood there he saw that a nail held down the lower sash, which he had so often tried, but in vain, to lift.  Putting his finger on this nail, he felt it move.  It had been placed loosely in a gimlet-hole, and could be drawn out easily.  For a little while he stood there, taking out and putting in the nail.  While doing this he thought he heard a sound below, and instantly dropped noiselessly from the window.  He had scarcely done so when the door of his room opened and Mother Peter came in.  She looked at him sharply, and then retired without speaking.

All the next day Andy listened after Mother Peter, waiting to hear her go out.  But she did not leave the house until after he was asleep in the evening.

On the next day, after waiting until almost noon, the child’s impatience of confinement grew so strong that he could no longer defer his meditated escape from the window, for ever since he had looked over the sash and discovered how it was fastened down, his mind had been running on this thing.  He had noticed that Mother Peter’s visits to his room were made after about equal intervals of time, and that after she gave him his dinner she did not come up stairs again for at least an hour.  This had been brought, and he was again alone.