all, will burn down?"

"Perez, you don't mean it!"

"I wouldn't swear that I didn't. Look how that thing's blazin'! There's
the barn t'other side of it, and the house t'other side of that."

"But can't you and me put it out?"

"I don't dare resk it. No, sir! We've got to git help, and git it in a
hurry, too!"

"Won't somebody from the station see the light and come over?"

"Not in this fog. You can't see a hundred foot. No, I've got to go right
off. Good land! I never thought! Is the horse gone?"

"No; the horse is here. Abner took one of the store horses to go to
Harniss with. But he did take the buggy, and there's no other carriage
but the old carryall, and that's almost tumblin' to pieces."

"I was cal'latin' to go horseback."

"What! and leave me here alone with the house afire? No, indeed! If you
go, I'm goin', too."

"Well, then, the carryll's got to do, whether or no. Git on a shawl or
somethin', while I harness up."

It was a frantic harnessing, but it was done in a hurry, and the
ramshackle old carryall, dusty and cobwebbed, was dragged out of the
barn, and Horace Greeley, the horse, was backed into the shafts. As they
drove out of the yard the flames were roaring through the roof of the
henhouse, and the lath fence surrounding it was beginning to blaze.

"Everything's so wet from the fog and the melted snow," observed the
Captain, "that it 'll take some time for the fire to git to the barn.
If we can git a gang here we can save the house easy, and maybe more. By
mighty!" he ejaculated, "I tell you what we'll do. I'll drive across the
ford and git Luther and some of the station men to come right across.
Then I'll go on to the village to fetch more. It was seven when I looked
at the clock as we come in from washin' dishes, so the tide must be
still goin' out, and the ford jest right. Git dap!"

"Hurry all you can, for goodness' sake! Is this as fast as we can go?"

"Fast as we can go with this everlastin' Noah's Ark. Heavens! how them
wheels squeal!"

"The axles ain't been greased for I don't know when. Abner was going to
have the old carriage chopped up for kindlin' wood."

"Lucky for him and us 'tain't chopped up now. Git dap, slow-poke! Better
chop the horse up, too, while he's 'bout it."

The last remark the Captain made under his breath.

"My gracious, how dark it is! Think you can find the crossin'?"

"GOT to find it; that's all. 'Tis dark, that's a fact."

It was. They had gone but