_to your mamma, you'll do the best that could be.'

"The people who were saving our things saved them all alike. They
threw them out of the window, and as I had seen the big blue china jar
smashed to shivers, I felt a longing to go and show them what to do;
but Rupert said, 'The fellow's quite right, Henny,' and he seized me
by the hand and dragged me off to the_ Crown. _Jane was in the hall,
looking quite wild, and she said to us, 'Where's Master Cecil?' I
didn't stop to ask her how it was that she didn't know. I ran out
again, and Rupert came after me. I suppose we both looked up at the
nursery window when we came near, and there was Baby Cecil standing
and screaming for help. Before we got to the door other people had
seen him, and two or three men pushed into the house. They came out
gasping and puffing without Cecil, and I heard one man say, 'It's too
far gone. It wouldn't bear a child's weight, and if you got up you'd
never come down again.'

"'God help the poor child!' said the other man, who was the chemist,
and had a large family, I know. I looked round and saw by Rupert's
face that he had heard. It was like a stone. I don't know how it was,
but it seemed to come into my head: 'If Baby Cecil is burnt it will
kill Rupert too.' And I began to think; and I thought of the back
stairs. There was a pocket-handkerchief in my jacket pocket, and I
soaked it in the water on the ground. The town burgesses wouldn't buy
a new hose when we got the new steam fire-engine, and when they used
the old one it burst in five places, so that everything was swimming,
for the water was laid on from the canal. I think my idea must have
been written on my face, for though I didn't speak, Rupert seemed to
guess at once, and he ran after me, crying, 'Let me go, Henrietta!'
but I pretended not to hear.