hemselves out of trouble; so the boys were
undisturbed for the space of two hours. A sudden Summer shower came up
in the meantime, and a sentimental young lady requested the song "Rain
upon the Roof," and Mrs. Burton and her husband began to render it as a
duet; but in the middle of the second stanza Mrs. Burton began to
cough, Mr. Burton sniffed the air apprehensively, while several of the
ladies started to their feet while others turned pale. The air of the
room was evidently filled with smoke.

"There can't be any danger, ladies," said Mrs. Burton. "You all know
what the American domestic servant is. I suppose our cook, with her
delicate sense of the appropriate, is relighting her fire, and has the
kitchen doors wide open, so that all the smoke may escape through the
house instead of the chimney. I'll go and stop it."

The mere mention of servants had its usual effect; the ladies began at
once that animated conversation which this subject has always inspired,
and which it will probably continue to inspire until all housekeepers
gather in that happy land, one of whose charms it is that the American
kitchen is undiscernible within its borders, and the purified domestic
may stand before her mistress without needing a scolding. But one
nervous young lady, whose agitation was being manifested by her feet
alone, happened to touch with the toe of her boot the turn-screw of the
hot-air register. Instantly she sprang back and uttered a piercing
scream, while from the register there arose a thick column of smoke.

"Fire!" screamed one lady.

"Water!" shrieked another.

"Oh!" shouted several in chorus.

Some ran up-stairs, others into the rainy street, the nervous young lady
fainted, a business-like young matron, who had for years been maturing
plans of operation in case of fire, hastily swept into a table-cover a
dozen books in special morocco bindings, and hurried through the rain
with them to a house several hundred feet away, while the faithful dog
Jerry, scenting the trouble afar off, hurried home and did his duty to
the best of his ability by barking and snapping furiously at every one,
and galloping frantically through the house, leaving his mark upon
almost every square yard of the carpet. Meanwhile Mr. Burton hurried
up-stairs coatless, with disarranged hair, dirty hands, smirched face,
and assured the ladies that there was no danger, while Budge and Toddie,
the former deadly pale, and the latter almost apoplecti