cried for help. There were now a few people gathered, one of
whom, who loves me, helped up another to the window. The child
seeing a man come into the window, was frightened, and ran away
to get to his mother's chamber. He could not open the door, so
ran back again. The man was fallen down from the window, and
all the bed and hangings in the room where he was were blazing.
They helped up the man a second time, and poor Jacky leaped into
his arms and was saved. I could not believe it till I had
kissed him two or three times. My wife then said unto me,
"Are your books safe?" I told her it was not much, now she and
all the rest were preserved. . . .

Mr. Smith of Gainsborough, and others, have sent for some of my
children. . . . I want nothing, having above half my barley
saved in my barns unthreshed. I had finished my alterations in
the _Life of Christ_ a little while since, and transcribed three
copies of it. But all is lost. God be praised!

I hope my wife will recover, and not miscarry, but God will give
me my nineteenth child. She has burnt her legs, but they mend.
When I came to her, her lips were black. I did not know her.
Some of the children are a little burnt, but not hurt or
disfigured. I only got a small blister on my hand.
The neighbours send us clothes, for it is cold without them.

The child (Kezzy) was born and lived. The Rectory was rebuilt within
a year, at a cost of 400 pounds. The day after the fire, as he
groped among the ruins in the garden, Mr. Wesley had picked up a torn
leaf of his Polyglot Bible, on which these words alone were legible:
_Vade; vende omnia quot habes; et attolle crucem, et sequere me_.