FIRE.
Levi entered the house. Uncle Nathan was not at home, but he was
probably somewhere in the vicinity. Aunt Susan was in the kitchen
baking her weekly batch of brown bread, the staple article of food in
the family, because it was cheaper than white bread.
"Aunt, I want to go up in the garret and get that little saw-mill I
made four or five years ago," said Levi.
"Well, I s'pose you can," replied she, filling up the old brick oven
with pine wood, which cracked and snapped furiously in the fierce
flames.
"It's up there now--isn't it?"
"I s'pose 'tis, if you put it there; I hain't teched it."
"Will you give me a little piece of candle, too, if you please?"
"You can take that piece in the candlestick on the mantel-tree piece,
if it's long enough."
"That will do just as well as if it were a foot long," replied Levi,
taking the piece of candle, and rolling it up in a bit of newspaper.
He went up into the attic, found the saw-mill just as he had left it,
though it was covered with half an inch of dust and cobwebs. When he
came down, he heard uncle Nathan's voice in the kitchen. He was
growling because his wife used so much wood to heat the oven, and Levi
concluded not to see him that day, for he seemed to be in a more than
usually unamiable frame of mind. He went out at the front door, and
Bessie joined him as he passed Mr. Mogmore's house. The saw-mill was
taken to the spot where it had stood before. The dam was reconstructed
much more readily than the rebel states.
Taking the candle from his pocket, Levi greased the running parts of
the machine, hoisted the gate, and away went the saw as briskly as a
bee after its years of rest in the attic, to the intense delight of
Bessie, who was quite ready to vote another feather for the cap of the
hero. A piece of board was adjusted on the carriage, and the saw began
to whisk, whisk, whisk through it, when a series of yells in the
direction of the road attracted the attention of the engineer of the
structure.
"Why, what's that smoke?" exclaimed Bessie.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouted several persons in the road.
"It's uncle Nathan's house," said Levi; and, without waiting to extend
any further courtesies to his fair companion, he bounded through the
field, and over the fence, to the imperilled dwelling.
Around the north chimney the smoke was pouring out in a dense volume.
Uncle Nathan had raised a ladder to the roof, and was drawing up pails
of water to throw on the fire. Aunt Susan and Mat Mogmore were
assisting him, and in a few moments several other persons arrived at
the house. Levi ran up the ladder, and went to work with a decision and
vigor which promised the best results.
"I'm ruined! I'm ruined, as true as you live!" groaned the miser. "The
house will burn up!"
"No, it won't, uncle Nathan. We can put the fire out if we stick to
it," replied Levi, in encouraging tones, as he dashed a bucket of water
on a volume of flame that rushed up at the side of the chimney.
"Tain't no use! It's jest my luck."
"Pass up the buckets, uncle Nathan, and we shall be all right in a few
minutes. We are gaining on it."
"O, my money!" groaned the miser, as he dropped the empty bucket he was
carrying.
Levi glanced at him. His uncle was as pale as a sheet, and seemed to
have wilted as though the flames had blasted him. He sank down upon the
roof, and would have rolled off if the strong arm of his nephew had not
saved him. His eyes were closed, his lips were blue and ashy, and his
frame was motionless. Levi was alarmed by his appearance. He was either
dead or had fainted, and the young man saw that he must be removed.
Lying down by the side of the senseless form, he clasped his arms
around it, and rose to his feet with the burden on his back. Like all
misers, uncle Nathan was nothing but skin and bones, which do not weigh
heavily, and Levi walked along the ridge-pole to the other end of the
house with the nerveless body on his back.
It was not an easy matter to descend the ladder with such a load,
though Levi would have carried his uncle down alone if no help had
arrived. Before he reached the ladder, two men had mounted the roof,
and while one of them was directed to pour water on the fire, the other
assisted in bearing the miser down the ladder. He was carried to Mr.
Mogmore's house, and aunt Susan followed, having satisfied herself that
her husband was not dead, but had fainted.
[Illustration: A PERILOUS POSITION.--Page 24.]
Having deposited the form of the miser on the bed, Levi hastened back
to assist in saving the house. His post was in the midst of danger, and
he went up on the roof. A plentiful supply of water soon drowned out
the fire, and before the engine arrived the last spark had been
extinguished.
"O, my money!" had been the last words of Mr. Fairfield before he
fainted. Levi did not understand the force of this expression, for he
was not aware that his uncle had four thousand dollars in gold
concealed in the house. The miser had worked with the energy of
desperation to put out the fire, until the flames appeared to be
gaining upon him, and then he was in despair. At this point the thought
of his gold flashed upon him with such stunning force that it had taken
away his senses. Doubtless the smoke and the heat, as well as the
violence of his exertions, had contributed in some measure to this
result.
The house would be burned, and the four thousand dollars would be lost!
This was the reflection which overwhelmed the miser. Even death seemed
preferable to losing such a vast sum of money. His god appeared to be
riven from him, and the revulsion in his mind was terrible. If his hair
had not already been gray, the shock was heavy enough to have bleached
it out in a single instant.
When the fire had been put out, Levi hastened over to the carpenter's
house to ascertain the condition of his uncle. The patient, under the
skilful treatment of the old ladies who had ministered to him, was just
regaining his consciousness, but had not yet sufficiently recovered to
know what had happened to him. The house was not much injured. A hole
in the roof, about six feet in diameter, had been burned out, and the
water poured upon the fire had found its way into the rooms below.
The neighbors had worked with energy in extinguishing the fire, and
some of them had gone into the house, and were removing the bedding and
other furniture, so that the water should not drip down upon it from
above. When Levi came back, he found Dock Vincent and Mat Mogmore
removing the bed from his uncle's chamber. Others were carrying out the
bureau and chairs. The work was about finished, and he joined Bessie in
the road, where she had been observing the exciting scene.
"How did it take fire, Levi?" she asked.
"I don't know. Aunt had a tremendous fire in the oven."
"There comes your uncle," added Bessie, pointing to the poor old man,
as he reeled up the road in his weakness, like a drunken man. "How
awful he looks!"
"He feels badly about it, I suppose," replied Levi.
Uncle Nathan's face did indeed present an aspect which was almost
hideous. It was still as pale and ghastly as death itself; and upon it
there was an expression of the most intense agony. His wife was
following him, hardly able to keep pace with the long strides he made.
"It's all right, uncle Nathan; we saved the house, and not much damage
has been done to it," said Levi, as the old man passed him.
Uncle Nathan took no notice of him; perhaps he did not even hear him,
so deeply was he absorbed in thinking about the gold. Levi and Bessie
followed him into the house. The wretched miser rushed into his
chamber. Mat Mogmore was there, and seemed to be busy in wiping the
water from the floor. Dock Vincent was in the next room, apparently as
busy as the carpenter's son.
The miser, with all the powers of his being concentrated in his eyes,
gazed tremblingly at the board which covered the hiding-place of his
money. That dark hole was the temple of his god, and all his hopes
seemed to be shrouded in its gloom. But the board was where he left it,
and as he left it, and the miser breathed a little easier.
"It was rather hard on you, Mr. Fairfield; but it's lucky it ain't no
worse," said Dock Vincent.
"It's bad enough," groaned the miser.
"That's so; but 'tain't so bad as it might be. I was just coming down
from the ledges when I saw the smoke; and I've been to work like a good
one ever since," added Dock.
"If I can do anything more for you, I'm willing to help as much as I
can," said Mat Mogmore.
"There ain't nothing more to do," replied Mr. Fairfield, who only
desired that the neighbors would leave, so that he could assure himself
of the safety of his gold.
They did go, without even the thanks of the miser. Levi was in the
kitchen with Mrs. Fairfield, trying to make out how the fire had
caught.
"Sech a piece of work, massy knows!" exclaimed the old lady, as she
looked about her in dismay at the water which was still dripping down
from above. "It'll take a whole month to put things to rights agin. I
can't tell, for the life of me, how it ketched."
"You had a large fire in the oven, aunt," suggested Levi.
"But the fire in the oven didn't set the ruff afire! Sunthin was the
matter with that chimbly, and your uncle fixed it e'enamost a month
ago. I don't know nothin' what he did to it. Mebbe there was a hole in
that chimbly--For massy sake! What's comin' now!"
This exclamation had been brought from her by a loud, despairing howl
from her husband, who at this moment rushed into the kitchen, with such
a look of anguish on his face that it frightened Bessie.
"O, my money!" groaned the wretched man.
"For pity's sake, husband, what's the matter?" cried Mrs. Fairfield.
"It's all gone!" gasped uncle Nathan.
"What's all gone?"
"The money!" he replied in a whisper.
His nature could endure no more. He tottered on his legs, and Levi
sprang to his assistance just as he dropped senseless on the floor.