It should have been alarming to watch his precious niece hold socasually to the ladder, her third-hand potato sack of a nightdressflapping around her skinny frame. But he reminded himself that sheclimbed rooftops like this every day. She always washed when shegot home from work, but tonight, she hadn’t quite gotten all the grimeoff her face before flopping onto her cot. Chimney sweeping was ajob for boys, but most employers didn’t look closely enough to seethe difference so long as a child got the job done quickly. And, asdangerous as it was to clean chimneys, it was still one of the saferjobs for a Kwen girl in this city.----------