a-settin' fire to the boards, an' burnin' up the food and comfort o' the
whole town!"

Tom hurled a torrent of profanity at the woman and the cripple
collectively, and then stumbled towards the road with the crowd, for the
fire was approaching the side of the yard where they stood, and beating
them back into the village street.

The air was filled with the appalling roar and scream of the flames;
showers of sparks were flung up against the black sky, as with a
tremendous crash the inside of one of the piles would collapse; and
still the engine did not come.

"Hurry! hurry!" the women shouted with hoarse, terrified voices, and some
ran to the edge of the bluff and looked down at the river.

The men were hurrying; but as they drew the long-unused engine from its
shed, an axle broke, and with stiff fingers they tried to mend it. Some
had had to run for axes to break the ice, and then they pushed and
jostled each other about the square hole they had cut, to dip up the
dark, swift water underneath; and all the while the sky behind them grew
a fiercer red, and the very ice glared with the leaping flames. At last,
pulling and pushing, they brought the little engine up the slope, and
then with a great shout dragged it into the outskirts of the yard. They
pumped furiously, and a small jet of water was played upon the nearest
pile of boards. A hissing cloud of steam almost hid the volunteer
firemen, but the flames leaped and tossed against the sky, and the sparks
were sucked up into the cold air, and whirled in sheets across the river.

John Ward came breathlessly towards his wife. "Are you all right, Helen?