turn back the chimney, and, though there was certainly blaze enough in
the matches, it did not catch the wick. It leaped forward and caught the
skirt of Prudy's dress.

"You're burnin' afire! You're burnin' afire!" shouted Dotty, dancing
around her sister. Prudy now felt the heat, and screamed too, bringing
her mother and Norah to the spot at once. The flames were soon smothered
in a rug, and so Prudy's life was mercifully saved.

It was sometime before any one understood what Dotty had been trying to
do with a light.

"I was just only a-puttin' a lamp to my feet," sobbed she. "I learned it
to Sabber school."

But the little one's rare tears were soon dried by a romp with Zip out
of doors.

"It's queer how things always happen just right," said Prudy, still
trembling from her fright. "You said, if I'd been wearing my calico,
mother, I'd have been scorched. And you know it was only the littlest
while ago I put on this blue delaine, to go to auntie's in!"




CHAPTER IV.

THE NESTLINGS.