large a blaze as they could, so Ruby was
quite dismayed at the size of her fire.

She was a little frightened, too. She had made the fire in the front
of her little house, and she could not get past it to go out. The
fence made a strong back wall to the house, over which she could not
climb, and she could not possibly get away from the smoke and heat
without going so near the fire that she was sure her night-gown would
take fire.

Suppose the boards that she used in making the house should take fire,
what would become of her then. I do not wonder that Ruby was
frightened when she looked at the little bonfire, crackling and
snapping away as cheerily as if a frightened child was not watching it
with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, I shall be all burned up," she cried. "And no one will ever know
what became of me. My mamma will cry and cry and wonder where Ruby is,
but she will never think that I came down here and made a fire, and
burned myself all entirely up. Oh, oh, I do wish I had n't. I do wish
I had n't. I wonder if I screamed and screamed for papa, whether he
would come down and hear me and come down and get me out. Perhaps he
could n't. I don't see how anybody could get past that dreadful blaze.
He would just have to see me all burning up and he could n't do one
thing to save me. Oh, how sorry he would be," and Ruby cried harder
than ever at the thought of her father's distress.

The smoke made her eyes smart and sting, and it choked her so that she
coughed and strangled, and I need not tell you that she would have
given anything in the world to have been back in her own little bed
again.

Just then papa drove through the gate, and you can imagine how much
surprised he was to see a fire under some boards down at the end of the
yard. He jumped out of the buggy and went down there as quickly as he
could, to find out what it was.

He looked into the little house, and there beyond the fire, crying so
hard that she did not see nor hear him, was the little girl he had been
looking for.

"Why, Ruby!" he exclaimed in amazement; and Ruby looked up, as much
surprised at finding her father there, as he had been a second before
when he saw her.

"Oh, papa, papa, must I be all burned up?" she cried, but papa was
already answering that question. He threw down the boards out of which
Ruby had made her house, and striding past the fire, lifted her in his
arms, and started up to the house with her.

He was so g