It was like the perfect rind of a great cheese in which a mouse had dwelt and nibbled till it was a cheese no more . And Peter was the mouse . What Peter had torn down , Tabitha had burnt up , for she wisely considered that without a house they should need no wood to warm it , and therefore economy was nonsense . Thus the whole house might be said to have dissolved in smoke and flown up among the clouds through the great black flue of the kitchen chimney . It was an admirable parallel to the feat of the man who jumped down his own throat . On the night between the last day of winter and the first of spring every chink and cranny had been ransacked except within the precincts of the kitchen . This fated evening was an ugly one . A snow-storm had set in some hours before , and was still driven and tossed about the atmosphere by a real hurricane which fought against the house as if the prince of the air in person were putting the final stroke to Peter 's labors . The framework being so much weakened and the inward props removed , it would have been no marvel if in some stronger wrestle of the blast the rotten walls of the edifice and all the peaked roofs had come crashing down upon the owner 's head . He , however , was careless of the peril , but as wild and restless as the night itself , or as the flame that quivered up the chimney at each roar of the tempestuous wind . `` The wine , Tabitha , '' he cried -- `` my grandfather 's rich old wine ! We will drink it now . '' Tabitha arose from her smoke-blackened bench in the chimney-corner and placed the bottle before Peter , close beside the old brass lamp which had likewise been the prize of his researches . Peter held it before his eyes , and , looking through the liquid medium , beheld the kitchen illuminated with a golden glory which also enveloped Tabitha and gilded her silver hair and converted her mean garments into robes of queenly splendor . It reminded him of his golden dream . `` Mr. Peter , '' remarked Tabitha , `` must the wine be drunk before the money is found ? '' `` The money is found ! '' exclaimed Peter , with a sort of fierceness . `` The chest is within my reach ; I will not sleep till I have turned this key in the rusty lock . But first of all let us drink . ''
There XXXXX no corkscrew in the house , he smote the neck of the bottle with old Peter Goldthwaite 's rusty key , and decapitated the sealed cork at a single blow .
being burnt enveloped jumped nibbled putting quivered removed torn warm