said the doctor as an engine whirled by them
while they stood waiting for a car.

The lady and gentleman proceeded to their home on the South Side, and
went to bed, though the fire-bells were still ringing. About midnight
they were roused by a violent ringing of the door-bell. Dr. Lively
started up with a patient on his mind. "There's a fire somewhere," he
exclaimed immediately, perceiving the glare in the room. Mrs. Lively was
out of bed in an instant.

"Where? where's the fire?" she cried. "Is the house afire? I believe in
my soul it is."

"No," said Dr. Lively, who had gone to the window; "but there's a
tremendous fire to the south-west. The flames seem to be leaping from
roof to roof. That was a policeman who rang us up. He seems to be waking
all this neighborhood."

They dressed hurriedly, called up Napoleon, and went out at the front
door, and on with the stream toward the fire. The street was crowded
with people, the air thick with noises, and everywhere it was as light
as day. They passed on under the lurid heavens, and reached a hotel
which stood open. Two streams of people were on the stairs--one hurrying
down, the other going up for a view of the fire. Our party followed the
stream up the stairs and on to the roof. It was crowded with spectators,
all greatly excited. Making their way to the front of the roof, our
couple stood spellbound by a vision which once seen could never be
forgotten. It was like a look into hell. The whole fire seemed below
them, a surging, tempest-lashed ocean of flame, with mile-long billows,
mile-high breakers and mile-deep shadows. All about the flaming ocean,
except to the leeward, was a sea of faces, white and upturned, and rapt
as with some unearthly vision. Stretching out for miles were housetops
swarming with crowds, gazing appalled at the spectacle in which the fate
of every man, woman and child of them was vitally involved. At times the
gale, with a strong, steady sweep, would level the billows of fire, and
bear the current northward with the majestic flow of a great river. Then
the flames would heave and part as with earthquake throes, dash skyward
in jets and spouts innumerable, and pile up to the north-east mountains
of fire that seemed to touch the heavens. Clouds of smoke obscured at
times the view of the streets below, without making inaudible the roll
of wheels, the beat of hoofs, the tramp of human feet, the cry of human
voices, the scream of the engines, the thun