house broken all to pieces, and it was afire before we were rescued.

Two men (God bless them!) took my dear wife and me with ropes, and by
the time we were in the street the house was burning furiously. Two
poor women on the lower floor were burned to death. We lost all we had
except the clothes we had on and our Bibles. These we had been reading
the night before and had left at our bedside. As we went out, we each
took a Bible. I had a very fine collection of religious books, some
very valuable, but all went in smoke; but, thank God! he saved our
lives. I assure you we have thanked him in prayer many times since we
escaped.

We got over on the Potrero and we had to sit in the hot sun all day the
eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, and in the cold night wind, and
we had nothing to lie down on nor to cover us to keep the cold out. My
wife asked a woman to loan her a blanket to throw around me. She would
not do it, yet she had enough extra ones for a dozen people. Finally
near morning of the second night a lieutenant from the Presidio
(regular army) came along and saw us sitting in the cold, and asked if
we were so bad off as that. I told him yes. He said he would see about
that. He went and took a heavy pair of blankets from that woman and
brought them to us. We wrapped ourselves up in them and sat down again.
After that we got along comfortably until morning, but the woman took
the blankets away as soon as morning came.

Then we got into a Santa Fe car, which kept us out of the wind, but we
had no bedding. After two days we all had to get out of the cars, as
the company had to send them to Los Angeles to load them with sugar.
Then we were out of doors again; but, praise the Lord! Mr. John A.
Hedges, a showman, gave us a comfortable house, and he says we can have