The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1866-06-28
KENOsHA WISCONSIN, THURSDAY

and had made her escape through the
kitchen. Lzette's room was under the
pointed roof Of the building, and just beside
the great stone chimney that took almost
one side of the house-and which was fall
ing, falling before their very eyes.
| Farmer Hope did not wait to hear more
Shouting to the men who were fastening
with ladders and buckets, he disappeared
in the smoke and fame which surrounded
the entrance A great tongue of fire leap
ed fiercely across the doorway as he van
ished.
theoretically, as for life, the neighbors
worked but i'll these lonely country dis
tricts such efforts are Of little avail. A fire
once breaking out in one of the old frame
buildings, snatches up its prey and devours
it before there is barely time to escape with
life from its encroaching power.
AS the farmer CROPPED along in the blind
ing smoke and falling timbers, there was
but one thought in his breast-to reach and
to save Lizette Lizette the child asleep
in the very arms of death !; God could he
rescue this frail little life, he would never
grumble again at the bardships through
which his was passed. Over the great stone
chimney, from which plank and plaster had
shredded away, writhed and Missed the
hungry flames. They wrapped the door
way of Lizette's little room. Before it the
passage way yawned, a gulf of flames. -
Every timber had fallen in. With but one
glance across the abyss, ana a cry that
rung out amid the crackle and crash of the
falling building-a dumb, despairing cry
that had no words to make it prayer he
sprung across the chasm. His hand touch
ed the latch of Lizette's door ; it yielded to
his touch, but the sudden weight of his
frame looseued the frail, decayed timbers
that yet supported it, and, with crash it
fell, dragging him with it down into the
seething flames
Helpless, scorched, scarce recognizable
in the SCOT and blood that covered his WIS.,
age farmer Hope was dragged, uncon-
scious, from the ruins. And as they did
so, the great stone chimney settled, with
heavy, fateful sound, down, down upon the
roof, which yielding beneath the pressure,
fell in with crash; sparkling fountain
of flame sprung triumphantly upward, as
the black roof shrivelled from sight, and
farmer Hopes old mansion was a perfect
wreck.
'Lizette Lizette!' he moaned, as the
awe-struck crowd of neighbors gathered
around.
At that moment, grandmother Beck, |
bending low over the PROSTATE figure and
dashing the cold water into his face, raised |
herself suddenly erect her fixed and eager
eye cleaned out from her disheveled hair
with sudden, wonderful light. She point
ed towards the meadow; there, breaking
through the hedge, flying towards them
with breathless speed, little figure app
peared /; it leaped, it flew across the field,
sprung painting into the excited group and |
flung itself, sobbing upon the neck of the
unconscious man, who lay like one dead in
their midst
'Lizette oh, Lizette!' he murmurred. |
Iizette! oh, Lizette! where have you
been p cried grandmother Beck
Been for blackberries, said Lizette with
her quaint simplicity and accustomed
to grandmother Beck. Lost |
'em all in the hedge, though, when l caught
sight of the fire.
Llzette had, for once, practiced little
deception on the old lady, and feigned her
illness and need of rest, in order to escape
from question
The old house was gone, but Lizette was
Sdlo' Ouo Hdu, do SidHulHoIloI Do0h
observed, earned living by
picking strawberries.
The last time saw farmer Hope, his
weather-beaten face was SCARED with to-
kens of his struggles with the flames but
there shone out Of it such a luminous ex-
preston, such spirit of cheerfulness, as |
had never seen before token, also, which
| think be brought from that battle in
which he was vanquished, but which a
stronger hand than his forbade to be an
utter defeat With Lizette to inspire him,
the farmer worked sturdily to recover a
home again. With the vanishing of his