The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-07-18

a.ongl Oh, we'll be killed. Well b,
killed." staring down at the mass O
people and up at the rolling clouds o
smoke and flame.
THE fire-escape is broken of JUS
below the window. / saw that yester
day"
"Then we must Jump" he said, pre-
pairing to leap down into the street.
"You shall not jump"
Polly pulled him down on the foo,
with all her strength. She suddenly
understood that she must save then
both. She grew very still and quiet
The tears left her eyes. Polly was
timid and gentle in manner, but in
reality was a quick-witted, practical
little body.
The room grew stifingly hot. A red
tongue of fire crept under door.
We must jump!" shriektd David
They're all doing it,"
"Yes, and they are dashed tc. pieces
when they touch the ground" looking
down with shudder.
I'VE shall be killed." yelled David
again, hoarsely.
Now the hotel was built in the shape
OF an l.. The fire was raging through
the main building. The room in which
David and his sister were was in the
junction between the two sides of the
house. Polly's quick eye noted that
very little smoke, as yet, came from the
small end of the house.
The stairways, most probably are
still standing there she thought.
Wen try the back stairs" she said,
flying to her uncle's trunk and taking
out package, which she held in her
bosom. David followed her mechan-
ically. He would have obeyed just
then anybody who took command.
When they opened the hall door,
however, the sitting smoke drove them
back. But Polly was faithful reader
OF the newspapers, and she remembered
the expedients which had been found of
service in the great fires.
She remembered, too, that it was
only the people who kept cool and quiet
whose lives were saved. She ran to
the wash stand, dipped some towels in
the pitcher, and wrapped them over
David's head and her own.
Then she went down upon her hands
and knees, and began to creep down
the hall. David initiated her. The
smoke and fire were not nearly so
sitting near the floor.
In the hall they were nearly run over
by shrieking men and women, flying
wildly this way and that, without any
purpose or aim. Now and then, one
would stagger and fall, suffocated by
the hot gas and smoke.
ave are going into the frel'' cried
David, stopping as darker volume of
smoke met them.
"No, no! 1t is current of air. Come,
comet"
Polly's strength was nearly gone; she
caught David's arm and urged him on,
and he, for shame's sake, could not de-
sert her.
"Here is the door!" SAe sprung up.
right. She had seen the housemaids,
one day, come up that way from the
kitchen.
"Here are stairs to the BASEMENT"
screamed Polly, at the top of her voice.
This is the way! This is the wayp
The shrill, childish voice rang
through the hall, and several persons
who escaped owed their lives to that
glad cry.
The stairs were narrow, but clear.
Polly and David ran down them, and
out into the street. AS they came into
the open air, man was fighting his
way through the police.
Il have two children in the build
ing" he cried. II will goin."
Here we are" shouted David. But
poor little Polly, before she could
reach him, fell insensible to the ground.
An hour or two later they were COM
fortably settled in another hotel-Polly
on her uncle's knee, before cheerful
fire.
There is your pocket-book," she
said. II remembered where you kept
it, uncle"
"Now / saw you put it there often"
said David. But forgot. And /
suppose l have read accounts of fires
and how to escape, just as Polly did"
at is not the amount that we learn
which counts, after all" said the Major,
"but our ability to use it properly, and
at the proper time"