"One road leads to fire and the other to combustion; that's plain
enough," said Jack; "but where do the merits come in? I thought we were
to learn the relative merits of bricks and wood."

"Wood has one conspicuous merit, a virtue that covers a multitude of
sins--it is cheap; but let me first arrange the fire-escapes."

"By all means. Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning."

"If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful
to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long
enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.
This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the
draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar
between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or
near the level of each floor. A cut-off half way up is an additional
safeguard. The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also
be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke and sparks from a
burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the
cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote
fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured 'there hadn't been
a fire kindled for six months.' These occasional dampers are a partial
remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons
of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case
of fire. The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be
filled.

[Illustration: A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY.]