to be sure they was fed. And now they'll be all burned up! What
SHALL I do?"

Here the lady began to cry.

"Pashy!" roared the Captain, whom the sight of his charmer's tears had
driven almost wild, "don't say another word. I'll save them hens or git
cooked along with 'em!"

And turning up his coat collar, as though he was going into a
refrigerator instead of a burning building, Captain Perez sprang through
the door.

Miss Davis screamed wildly to him to come back, and danced about,
wringing her hands. The interior of the henhouse was now a mass of black
smoke, from which the voices of the Captain and the Leghorns floated in
a discordant medley, something like this:

"Hold still, you lunatics! ('Squawk! squawk!') Druther be roasted than
have me catch you, hadn't you? ('Squawk! squawk!') A--kershew! Land!
I'm smothered! NOW I've got you! Thunderation! Hold STILL! HOLD STILL, I
tell you!"

Just as the agonized Miss Patience was on the point of fainting, the
little window at the back of the shanty was thrown open and two hens,
like feathered comets, shot through it. Then the red face of the Captain
appeared for an instant as he caught his breath with a "Woosh!" and
dived back again. This performance was repeated six times, the Captain's
language and the compliments he paid the hens becoming more picturesque
every moment.

At length he announced, "That's all, thank goodness!" and began to climb
through the window. This was a difficult task; for the window was narrow
and, in spite of what Captain Eri had called his "ingy-rubber" make up,
Captain Perez stuck fast.

"Catch hold of my hands and haul, will you, Pashy?" he pleaded. "That's
it; pull hard! It's gittin' sort of muggy in behind here. I'll never
complain at havin' cold feet ag'in if I git out of this. Now, then! Ugh!
Here we be!"

He came out with a jerk, like a cork out of a bottle, and rolled on the
ground at his lady's feet.

"Oh, Perez!" she exclaimed, "are you hurt?"

"Nothin' but my feelin's," growled the rescuer, scrambling upright. "I
read a book once by a feller named Joshua Billin's, or somethin' like
it. He was a ignorant chap--couldn't spell two words right--but he had
consider'ble sense. He said a hen was a darn fool, and he was right;
she's all that."

The Captain's face was blackened, and his clothes were scorched, but his
spirit was undaunted.

"Pashy," he said, "do you realize that if we don't git help, this whole
shebang, house and