s in doing so!

Leaping upon the bolster behind his great, stupid head, she reached
over, and, seizing the mass of his gray, grizzly beard, she pulled up
the wrong way with all her might, until, roaring with pain, he started
up in a fury, and, seeing her, exclaimed:

"Oh! you abominable little vixen! is that you: Do you dare! Are you
frantic, then? Oh, you outrageous little dare-devil! Won't I send you to
a mad-house, and have you put in a strait-jacket, till you know how to
behave yourself! You infernal little wretch, you!"

A sudden thought struck Sans Souci to move him by his affection for
herself.

"Uncle, look around you! The house is burning! if you do not rouse
yourself and save your poor little 'wretch,' she must perish in the
flames!"

This effectually brought him to his senses; he understood everything! he
leaped from his bed, seized a blanket, enveloped her in it, raised her
in his arms, and, forgetting gout, lameness, leg and all, bore her down
the creaking, heated stairs, flight after flight, and through the
burning passages out of the house in safety.

A shout of joy greeted the commodore as he appeared with Jacquelina in
the yard.

But heeding nothing but the burden he bore in his arms, the old sailor
strode on until he reached a convenient spot, where he threw the blanket
off her face to give her air.

She had fainted--the terror and excitement had been too great--the
reaction was too powerful--it had overwhelmed her, and she lay insensible
across his arms, her fair head hanging back, her white garments streaming
in the air, her golden locks floating, her witching eyes closed, and her
blue lips apart and rigid on her glistening teeth--so she lay like dead
Cordelia in the arms of old Lear.

Henrietta and Mrs. L'Oiseau, followed by all the household, crowded
around them with water, the only restorative at hand.

At length she recovered and looked up, a little bewildered, but soon
memory and understanding returned and, gazing at her uncle, she suddenly
threw her arms around his neck and burst into tears.

She was then carried away into one of the best negro quarters and laid
upon a bed, and attended by her mother and her maid Maria.

The commodore, with his wife, found shelter in another quarter. And the
few remaining members of the household were accommodated in a similar
manner elsewhere.

It was near noon before they were all ready to set forth from the scene
of disaster, and it was the