different parts of the engine house, which, it developed,
contained on the ground floor the home of the fire engine, on
the second floor the clubroom, on alternate nights, of the
firemen, the local G. A. R., and the Knights of Pythias, and
in its cellar the town jail.

Winthrop and the chauffeur the learned judge condemned to the
cells in the basement. As a concession, he granted Miss
Forbes the freedom of the entire clubroom to herself.

The objections raised by Winthrop to this arrangement were of
a nature so violent, so vigorous, at one moment so specious
and conciliatory, and the next so abusive, that his listeners
were moved by awe, but not to pity.

In his indignation, Judge Allen rose to reply, and as, the
better to hear him, the crowd pushed forward, Fred gave way
before it, until he was left standing in sullen gloom upon its
outer edge. In imitation of the real firemen of the great
cities, the vamps of Fairport had cut a circular hole in the
floor of their clubroom, and from the engine room below had
reared a sliding pole of shining brass. When leaving their
clubroom, it was always their pleasure to scorn the stairs
and, like real firemen, slide down this pole. It had not
escaped the notice of Fred, and since his entrance he had been
gravitating toward it.

As the voice of the judge rose in violent objurgation, and all
eyes were fixed upon him, the chauffeur crooked his leg
tightly about the brass pole, and, like the devil in the