s in flames!" cried Fred.
"Not it," said the barge-master; "it's ten to one nothing but a
rubbish-heap burning, or the moors on fire beyond the town."
Mr. Rowe rather snubbed Fred, but I think he was curious about the
matter. The driver urged his horse, and the good barge _Betsy_ swung
along at a pace to which she was little accustomed.
When we came by the cricket-field Mr. Rowe himself said--"It's in the
middle of the town."
Through the deafening noise of the bells I contrived to shout in his
ear a request that I might be put ashore, as we were now about on a
level with my home. Mr. Rowe ran a plank quickly out and landed me,
without time for adieux.
I hastened up to the town. The first street I got into was empty, but
it seemed to vibrate to S. Philip's peal. And after that I pushed my
way through people, hurrying as I was hurrying, and the nearer I got
to home the thicker grew the crowd and the ruddier became the glow.
And now, in spite of the bells, I caught other noises. The roar of
irresistible fire,--which has a strange likeness to the roar of
irresistible water,--the loud crackling of the burning wood, and the
moving and talking of the crowd, which was so dense that I could
hardly get forward.
I contrived to squeeze myself along, however, and as I turned into our
street I felt the warmth of the fire, and when I looked at my old home
it was a mass of flames.
I tried to get people to make way for me by saying--"It's my house,
please let me through!" But nobody seemed to hear me. And yet there
was a pause, which was only filled by that curious sound when a crowd
of people gasp or sigh; and if every man had been a rock it could not
have been more impossible to move backwards or forwards. It was dark,
except for the moonlight, where I stood, but in a moment or two the
flames burst from the bedroom windows, and the red light spread
farther, and began to light up faces near me. I was just about to
appeal to a man I knew, when a roar began which I knew was not that of
the fire. It was the roar of human voices. And when it swelled louder,
and was caught up as it came along, and then broke into deafening
cheers, I was so wild with excitement and anxiety that I began to kick
the legs of the man in front of me to make him let me go to the home
that was burning before my eyes.
What he would have done in return, I don't know, but at this moment
the crowd broke up, and we were pushed, and pressed, and jostled
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