. It
looked like a world on fire, for we could see no smoke,--it was too near
for that,--and the heat was terribly intense.

There was no time to be lost. Both our servants and M----'s were away
spending the Fourth, so we had to depend entirely on ourselves. Our
back fence was soon torn down, and we all worked as we never had before.
We saved a good deal, but not one half of what we brought from our house
in the first place. We had thrown things out of the window, and C----
and J---- worked hard dragging them out of the yard, until, scorched and
almost suffocated, they were compelled to desist. The flames were upon
us so quickly, it seemed incredible that they could have seized the
house so soon after we thought we were in danger.

"Thank God, we are all safe!" cried M----, sinking upon the ground in
the graveyard, where we took refuge. She tried to look cheerful; but the
sight before her--her house in flames--and the thought of her husband's
absence overcame her, and she burst into tears. I laid the two little
girls upon the grass; and, wearied out, they soon fell asleep. It was a
strange scene in that quiet old cemetery, where the dead of more than a
century had lain undisturbed in their graves. Where only the reverent
tread of the mourner, or of some visitor carefully threading his way
among the grassy mounds, was wont to be known, crowds of frantic people
were hurrying across; while here and there were family groups clustered
together, watching the destruction of their property.

How long the remaining hours seemed! Would the daylight never come? The
children slept on, and we four talked in low tones of the morrow.

At length, faint, rosy lights began to streak the eastern horizon, and
slowly the day dawned. The sun rose unclouded above the hills, sending
down his beams upon the desolation which the night had wrought, lighting
up the islands and the blue waters, flecked with sail-boats.

Not less welcome to us, J---- now also appeared,--with a hay-cart, whose
driver he had engaged to come and remove us. Our goods were put into it;
we took our places among them, and, as soon as the tardy oxen could
carry us, were safe in my sister's house, living over again in words
that fearful night, and relating to each other some of those incidents
of the fire which can never all be told. A little friend of ours, when
leaving her home, took in her arms her doll, nearly as large as herself;
obliged to flee a second time, her m