s, but at the gate she
stopped.

From up the street came the sound of a bell smaller than those of the
churches and courthouse, yet one that outdid all others in the madness
of its appeal to clear the way. It was borne along by what seemed at
first an indefinite black mass, but which--as the Aurora grew keener,
producing even here a faint, yellow twilight--resolved itself into a
mob of hoarsely-shouting men and boys, who were running and tugging at
ropes, which drew along three extraordinary vehicles. They came rapidly
down the street and passed Miss Betty with a hubbub and din beyond all
understanding; one line of men, most of them in red shirts and oil-cloth
helmets, at a dead run with the hose-cart; a second line with the
hand-engine; the third dragging the ladder-wagon. One man was riding, a
tall, straight gentleman in evening clothes and without a hat, who stood
precariously in the hose-cart, calling in an annoyed tone through a
brazen trumpet. Miss Betty recognized him at once; it was he who caught
her kitten; and she thought that if she had been Fanchon Bareaud she
must have screamed a warning, for his balance appeared a thing of mere
luck, and, if he fell, he would be trampled under foot and probably run
over by the engine. But, happily (she remembered), she was not Fanchon
Bareaud!

Before, behind, and beside the Department, raced a throng of boys,
wild with the joy experienced by their species when property is being
handsomely destroyed; after them came panting women, holding their sides
and gasping with the effort to keep up with the flying procession.

Miss Betty trembled, for she had never seen the like in her life; she
stood close to the hedge and let them go by; then she turned in after
them and ran like a fleet young deer. She was going to the fire.

Over all the uproar could be heard the angry voice through the trumpet,
calling the turns of the streets to the men in the van, upbraiding them
and those of the other two companies impartially; and few of his hearers
denied the chief his right to express some chagrin; since the Department
(organized a half-year, hard-drilled, and this its first fire worth the
name) was late on account of the refusal of the members to move until
they had donned their new uniforms; for the uniforms had arrived from
Philadelphia two months ago, and tonight offered the first opportunity
to display them in public.

"Hail Vanrevel!" panted Tappingham Marsh to Eugene Madrillon