the engines
and men returned to their several stations, leaving London once again in
comparative repose.

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Note 1. It is perhaps right to state here, that a deed similar to this
in nearly every point was performed by Conductor Samuel Wood, a member
of the London Fire-Escape Brigade, for which he received a testimonial
signed by the then Lord Mayor, and a silver watch with 20 pounds from
the inhabitants of Whitechapel. Wood saved nearly 200 lives by his own
personal exertions. Many of his brave comrades have also done deeds
that are well worthy of record, but we have not space to do more than
allude to them here.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

JOE CORNEY'S ADVENTURE WITH GHOSTS.

When we said that the firemen returned to their respective stations, it
must not be supposed that the house which had been burnt was left in
forlorn wretchedness. No; one of the firemen remained to watch over it,
and guard against the upstarting of any sneaking spark that might have
managed to conceal itself.

The man selected for this duty was Joe Corney.

Unfortunately for Joe, this was the only part of a fireman's duty that
he did not relish.

Joe Corney was, both by nature and education, very superstitious. He
believed implicitly in ghosts, and knew an innumerable host of persons,
male and female, who had seen people who said they had seen ghosts. He
was too honest to say he had ever seen a ghost himself; but he had been
"very near seein' wan two or three times," and he lived in perpetual
expectation and dread of meeting one face to face before he died. Joe
was as brave as a lion, and faced danger, and sometimes even what
appeared to be certain death, with as much unflinching courage as the
bravest of his comrades. Once, in particular, he had walked with the
branch in his hands along the burning roof of a tottering warehouse,
near the docks, in order to gain a point from which he could play on the
flames so as to prevent them spreading to the next warehouse, and so
check a fire which might have easily become one of the "great fires of
London."

Joe was therefore a man who could not be easily frightened; yet Joe
trembled in his shoes when he had the most distant prospect of meeting
with a ghost!

There was no help for it, however. He had been appointed to watch the
ruin; and, being a man who cherished a strong sense of duty, he set
himself doggedly to mak