FIGHTING FIRE.
A sudden scream of terror from the cottage roused Dick from his
thinking, and laying the baby down he rushed in.
On the doorstep he met little Susy, with her lilac pinafore in flames.
She had been trying to reach something from the mantelpiece, and had
climbed up on the unsteady old fender. There was no guard in front of
the open fire, and the draught had drawn her pinafore towards the bars
and set it on fire, and the flames were mounting around her, and
already her hair was singed.
But Lionheart knew what to do. With a spring and a cry he caught her
just as she was rushing out-of-doors, and flinging her down he fell on
her, and tore and clutched at the burning rags with his bare hands.
She screamed with fright rather than with pain, but Dick did not let go
till the danger was past; and his clothes, being woollen, did not catch.
There was a scuffle of footsteps as Mrs. Fowley and two other women
came in with a great outcry. And the sobbing child was wrapped in a
big shawl, and the doctor sent for.
And her mother, to relieve her own fears, began as usual to upbraid
Dick.
"It's all your fault, you good-for-nothing pauper! Why didn't you look
after the child?"
"I thought you had her, she went out with you," he said, trembling with
dread of more than a scolding, and scarcely able to bear the pain in
his poor burned hands.
"Then you'd no business to think," she screamed. "What you've got to
do is to mind the children, and anything else I've a mind to order you
to do. Three years and better we've kep' you out of charity, and you
don't earn shoe leather yet. Where's the baby?"
"Asleep in the garden, I put her down under the tree when I heard Susy
cry out."
"Then go and fetch her this minute. And a fine hiding you'll get when
Fowley comes home. Susy's his favourite out of 'em all."
Dick looked appealingly at the neighbours and muttered, "I--I can't
carry her--my hands----"
"Bless me, there's work for the doctor here," said one of the women in
consternation, as she looked at his poor scorched fingers.
"Depend upon 't, Mrs. Fowley, he's saved your Susy's life. Best not
talk about hidings."
"What's the matter here?" cried a brisk voice at the door, as the old
doctor entered. He had been visiting in the next street, and was
fortunately met by the messenger.
"Burns. Ah! the old story--open fires and no guard. When _will_ you
women learn wisdom?"
Mrs. Fowley shrank from his stern look, and whined, "How can the likes
of we afford guards, I should like to know?"
"Afford?" he echoed sharply, as he turned from his examination of
Susy's hurts. "You women spend enough at the 'Blue Dragon' every week
to put a guard at every fire-place, to say nothing of what the men
spend. If you hadn't been drinking together, and neglecting home, this
wouldn't have happened. I can smell the gin here and now!"
The old doctor was noted for his plain speaking, but with all his
sternness to wrong doing, he was very tender-hearted, and nothing could
have been more gentle than his touch on Susy's arm.
Fortunately her hurts were surface burns, and no vital part had been
touched by the flame. But Dick's were more severe, and the doctor took
infinite pains in bandaging the scarred hands and wrists.
"You're a brave lad," he said, when the pain was eased, and the last
strip of lint put on. "How did _you_ come to be burned like this?"
"I ran in from the garden when she screamed, and I got her down and
scrambled out the flames somehow with my hands and jacket. You see, I
_had_ to be Lionheart," he added softly.
"Lionheart, is _he_ your hero, the crusader king?"
Dick nodded, half scared at finding his cherished aspirations shared by
another.
"But there is a living Leader to follow, my boy, who is better than all
the knights of old. Do you know whom I mean?"
"Yes, sir, the Lord Jesus."
"Yes, He is the Lion of Judah, and the true Captain of all true
crusaders to-day. Follow Him, and he will make you Lionheart indeed."
Then turning to Mrs. Fowley, he said in a different tone, "You owe your
child's life to this brave little lad. Now take care of him in return.
He'll not be able to work for a good while, and he wants feeding up as
well. He has no business to be so thin and ill-nourished. See that
his hands are kept covered, and Susy's arm too. I'll send liniment
down to-night for both. And you will have to nurse the baby yourself,
and do the work for many a day."
The old doctor's voice was stern as he finished, for he had known
Dick's father and mother in their own tidy little home, and he hated
Mrs. Fowley's drinking habits, and her neglect of the children, and
unkindness to the orphan boy. For once she looked ashamed of herself,
and the neighbours, feeling guilty themselves, slipped away. They knew
the doctor was right, and that most of the accidents he had to attend,
and the poverty that caused him to work for nothing, were alike due to
the drink.
And life was certainly a little easier for Dick in the next few days.
His bandaged hands made house-work impossible, and so he was allowed to
go to school in peace.
And the knowledge that Susy owed her life to him, made even the
ill-tempered father a shade less surly.
He could not write or do sums, but the teacher saw that his time was
well filled. Dick was a favourite of his because his work was so
faithfully done, in spite of drawbacks.
Home lessons had small chance in Mrs. Fowley's presence, and the
frequent excuses for keeping him at home had sadly interfered with his
getting on, but in school no boy was happier than he.
In the playground there might be taunts about his shabby clothes, and
rough usage from the Fowley boys, that were hard to bear patiently.
And he did not always succeed in keeping his temper down.
But when, once or twice, he had struck a blow for freedom, garbled
tales were carried home and he had to suffer tenfold afterwards for his
daring.
But the thought of Lionheart and his long waiting made him brave to
suffer and endure. And more and more the thought of Jesus, as the
Friend and Leader of those who follow Him, filled the darkest hours
with joy.
The annual examination was drawing near, and Dick was very anxious to
be able to use his hands by then, and "pass the standard" successfully.
Meanwhile, he worked doubly hard, and went far ahead of the other boys
in lessons that had to be learned by heart.
And the teacher lent him books to read that helped him wonderfully,
though he could only read them by snatches.
He saw how boys as poor and friendless as himself had had to bear
hardship and unkindness, and how they had fought their way onward,
through all difficulties, to success and freedom, and his own resolve
grew stronger every day.
Now and then Mrs. Fowley would order him to be off out of her way, and
when this happened in the evening he gladly went to Paddy's lodgings.
It was so quiet there, after the scolding and quarrelling at home, and
Paddy always had a welcome for him, while bright-eyed Pat quickly
learned to know his owner.
He grew very fast, and was so full of fun and frolic, that there were
no dull times when he was awake.
And Paddy, who seemed to know all about dogs and their doings,
suggested that he should be taught tricks "because of his knowingness."
And teaching him to beg and sing and shake hands, filled many a merry
half-hour that autumn, and the Fowley's would scarcely have known Dick,
if they had seen him there.
When the examination day came he managed to get through successfully,
though his paperwork had to have allowances made for its deficiencies.
But at home all the effects of Susy's rescue had passed away, and Dick
was more scolded and starved than ever before.