"No," said Caroline Liscom, "I want you to go home, and that is all I
do want of you."

Then the mother boarder spoke--she was evidently not easily put down.
"I refuse to return to the house or to allow my family to do so
unless I am officially notified by the fire department that the fire
is extinguished," said she.

"Then you can stay out-of-doors," said Caroline Liscom, and we all
gasped to hear her, though we secretly admired her for it.

The boarder glared at her in a curious kind of way, like a broadside
of stoniness, but Caroline did not seem to mind it at all. Then the
boarder changed her tactics like a general on the verge of defeat.
She sidled up to Mr. Spear, the chief engineer, who was giving orders
to drag home the engine, and said in an unexpectedly sweet voice,
like a trickle of honey off the face of a rock: "My good man, am I to
understand that I need apprehend no further danger from fire! I ask
for the sake of my precious family."

Mr. Spear looked at her as if she had spoken to him in Choctaw, and
she was obliged to ask him over again. "My good man," said she,
"_is_ the fire out?"

Mr. Spear looked at her as if he were half daft then, but he
answered: "Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, certainly, ma'am, no danger at
all, ma'am." Then he went on ordering the men: "A leetle more to
the right, boys! All together!"