ened his eyes.

"Connie, Connie--where are we?" he cried.

Connie sat up with a stare.

"I be stiff," she began, "and--and cold. Wotever's the hour? Bide a bit,
Ronald, and I'll find the matches and turn on the gas."

"What's the matter with the room?" said Ronald.

"I don't know nothing," said Connie.

"My eyes smart," said Ronald, "and I can't breathe."

"I feel queer too," said Connie. "I won't be a second finding out,
though. You lie quiet."

She groped about, found a match-box, which still contained a few
matches, struck a light, and applied it to the gas, which was at full
pressure now, and roared out, making a great flame.

"W'y, the room's full o' smoke," said Connie. "Wottever can it be?"

Ronald sat up in bed, opening his eyes.

"Where does it come from?" he said. "The fire is out."

Just then Big Ben proclaimed the hour of three.

"He that shall endure," thought Connie. "To the end," darted through
Ronald's mind; and just then both children heard an unmistakable and
awful roar. Was it the roar of human voices or the roar of something
else--a devouring and awful element? Connie turned white. Now, if ever,
was the time to be brave.

"I'll open the winder and look out," she said.

She sprang towards it and, with a great effort, pushed it half up. The
moment she did so, the noise from without came louder, and the noise
from within was more deafening.

"Fire! fire!" shouted a multitude of people from below in the street;
and "Fire! fire!" cried the frenzied inhabitants of the old
tenement-house. Connie and Ronald were on the top story. Connie went
back to Ronald.

"The house is on fire, Ronnie!" she said. "But we mustn't be frightened,
either of us; we must think of the grand verse, and of what Big Ben
said. Big Ben's an angel, you mind; Giles knows all about that."

"Oh yes," said Ronald, his teeth chattering; for the draught from the
open window, although it relieved his breathing, made him intensely
cold. "It's a beautiful verse, isn't it, Connie?" he continued.

"Yus," said Connie. "Let's get to the winder, Ronnie dear. We'll call
out. There are people down in the street. The fire-engines 'ull be on in
a minute; we'll be saved, in course."

"Oh, of course," said Ronnie. He staggered to the floor, and put his
feet into his shoes. "A good thing I wasn't undressed," he said.

"Yus," said Connie. "Now, let's get to the winder."

The children staggered there. The smoke was getting more de