are, on the average, between four and five fires every twenty-four
hours!

Willie Willders was of an enquiring disposition. He wanted to know how
things were managed at a fire, from the beginning to the end, and he
found that the course of true inquiry, like another course we wot of,
never did run smooth.

Poor Willie's heart was with that engine, but his legs were not. They
did their best, but they failed, strong and active though they were, to
keep up with the horses. So Willie heaved a bursting sigh and slackened
his speed--as he had often done before in similar circumstances--
resolving to keep it in sight as long as he could, and trust to his
eyesight and to the flames "showing a light" for the rest.

Just as he came to this magnanimous resolve, a strapping young gentleman
called a passing cab, leaped in, ordered the driver to follow the
engine, and offered double fare if he should keep it in view up to the
fire.

Willie, being sharp as a needle, at once stepped forward and made as
though he would open the door for the gentleman. The youth was already
in and the door shut, but he smiled as he shouted to the driver, "All
right!" and tossed a copper to Willie, with the remark, "There, you
scamp!" The copper fell in the mud, and there Willie left it, as he
doubled nimbly behind the vehicle, and laid hold of it.

The cabman did his best to earn his double fare, and thus it came to
pass that Willie was in time to see the firemen commencing work.

As the young man leaped from the cab he uttered a cry of surprise and
alarm, and rushed towards the crowd of firemen nearest to the burning
house without paying his fare. Willie was a little astonished at this,
but losing sight of the youth in the crowd, and seeing nothing more of
him at that time, he became engrossed in other matters.

There were so many men on the ground, however--for just then a third
engine dashed up to the scene of conflagration--that it was difficult
for the excited boy to appreciate fully what he saw. He got as close to
the engine, however, as the policemen would allow him, and observed that
a fire-plug had been already opened, and over it had been placed a
canvas cistern of about a yard long by eighteen inches broad, stretched
on an iron frame. The cistern was filled with water to overflowing, and
the first engine had placed its suction-pipe in it, while from the front
of the engine extended the leathern hose that conveyed the water to th