other people's property I took down an ulster from a
rack, and stood on it until a gentleman from upstairs, who was
singularly distraught, emptied a whole pail of water over the balusters
under the impression that we were flaring somewhere below there. The
conflagration was on the first floor above a shop, which had caught
light to begin with, and burned through to the hotel bedrooms. Here were
plenty of smoke, plenty of "smother," and a few flames in the corner,
but no one knew what might be the end of the business, and we were all
prepared to march on to the breezy Parade should the fire gain too much
sway over the premises.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: But is not very serious.]

The characters in this little domestic scene I found highly amusing
after my first scare, as I have no doubt I was a very amusing spectacle
to others. The most agile of the company tore up and down stairs with
utensils of all kinds, full of water, from the kitchen; sometimes they
fell up the stairs, or clashed against each other, and an awful mess was
the consequence. One lady was brought solemnly down in a large clothes
basket, fright having deprived her of the use of her limbs; two men in
night-shirts stood against the front door with small portmanteaus under
their arms, extremely anxious to be the first to get out alive; one old
gentleman, also scantily clad, harangued us from the first landing in a
feeble and bleating fashion. "Has any-any-body se-ent for the fiiire
brigade?" he asked every two or three minutes, always forgetting that he
had been answered in the affirmative. He was sure that the fire brigade
had escaped every one's memory but his own, and presently--it _had_
seemed a long while--the firemen in their brass helmets arrived, and
brought their hose into the premises and lumbered upstairs with it, and
the engines began pumping and thumping in the street. A
quarter-of-an-hour finished the proceedings so far as one's personal
safety was concerned, and by twos, threes, and fours we slunk away to
our respective rooms considerably ashamed now of our get-up, and
thankful in our hearts that the worst was over.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Gribble's predicaments have been very common-place.]

Most of my predicaments have been very common-place predicaments, and
the ways in which I have got out of them very ordinary and obvious ways.
Once, when I was a child in petticoats, I wante