Jacob's Ladder (Part 2)

It's no strange coincidence that the last part of this story comes on Friday 13th. A day viewed by most English as an unlucky one. By no strange set of events it also involves a ladder.

Now Jacob had all the things needed, so he thought, to build his ladder. No one can fault him for working diligently on it either. Never have I seen a man so carful in his measurements, cuts and jointery. In the end of it all a fine specimen of a ladder was complete and ready for testing. Well, Jacob thought he'd test the often used "straight" setting for the ladder along the side of the barn. because of the manner the hinges were installed it worked flawlessly. Next came the test of the "A" form of the ladder. A great crowd had gathered to see the new improvements and for all practicle purposes the second test was a great success as well.

New ladder in hand Jacob decides he's going to fix the lightening rod on top of his barn. He folds his new invention in half and heads up to the roof with cheery whistle and a sly grin. He got up the point of the roof, set up his new ladder in the "A" form, and then proceeded to climb up. Just as he reached the top it seemed his mass overcame the resistance of the asphalt shingle roof to his new ladder. With that it crashed down in half with poor Jacob grabbing on for dear life. All of a sudden his eyes lit up wider than the double doors on the barn as the ladder and he began to slide down the side of the barn. Not to be one that doesn't keep a stern eye on things the Parson was on hand as usual. Unfortunatly, for the Parson, he was directly under Jacob as he began his trip down to terra firma. The only thing we can guess at this point was that the Parson didn't fully realize the depth of the situation. You see the Parson began waving his hands back and forth and yelling, "Stop, stop Jacob!!!" Considering Jacob forgot to put a locking bar for the ladder I doubted that he remembered to install a handbrake. This was proven without a doubt when Jacob flew beard first headlong onto the Parson.

Fortunatly, for us, Jacob, and the Parson no one was harmed and the only thing hurt was a little pride. Sadly fro Jacob though the Parson has limited his trips to town and only under supervision lest he should come up any more ideas. I can't blame him after all. It seems the Parson is the only one that gets hurt from Jacobs experiments. He's still trying to grow his beard back to even form after Jacobs previous improvement. It was a solor powered flashlight.