y through Mary's nimble
fingers, and came out of the tub fair as the driven snow. Soon the
front of the fire-place became like a ship dressed with flags, with this
difference, that the flags instead of being gay and parti-coloured, were
white and suggestive of infancy and innocence. The gentle noise of
washing, and the soft breathing of the sleepers, and the tiny ticking of
the clock over the chimney-piece, were the only audible sounds, for
London had reached its deadest hour, four o'clock. Rioters had
exhausted their spirits, natural and artificial, and early risers had
not begun to move.

Presently to these sounds were added another very distant sound which
induced Mary to stop and listen. "A late cab," she whispered to
herself. The rumbling of the late cab became more distinct, and soon
proved it to be a hurried cab. To Mary's accustomed ear this raised
some disagreeable idea. She cast a look of anxiety into the closet,
wiped her hands quickly, and taking up a pair of dry boots which had
been standing near the fire, placed them beside her husband's coat.
This was barely accomplished when the hurried cab was heard to pull up
at the neighbouring fire-station. Only a few seconds elapsed when
racing footsteps were heard outside. Mary seized her husband's arm--

"Up, Joe, up," she cried and darted across the room, leaped on a chair,
and laid violent hands on the tongue of the door-bell, thereby
preventing a furious double ring from disturbing the rosebud!

At the first word "up," the bed in the closet groaned and creaked as the
fireman bounded from it, and the house shook as he alighted on the
floor. Next moment he appeared buttoning his braces, and winking like
an owl in sunshine. One moment sufficed to pull on the right boot,
another moment affixed the left. Catching up his half-dried coat with
one hand, and flinging on his sailor's cap with the other, he darted
from the house, thrust himself into his coat as he ran along and
appeared at the station just as four of his comrades drew the
fire-engine up to the door, while two others appeared with three horses,
which they harnessed thereto--two abreast, one in front--with marvellous
rapidity. The whole affair, from the "Up, Joe, up," of Mrs Dashwood,
to the harnessing of the steeds, was accomplished in less than five
minutes. By that time Joe and several of his mates stood ready belted,
and armed with brass helmets on their heads, which flashed back the ray