The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-02-25

obviously. She was not shrewd at gang
ing others feelings; but Indifference to Jim
seemed an incredible, an impossible thing.
She was not sure now that she had wished
Cass to be thus Indifferent she had thought,
perhaps hoped, that Cass would envy her
little. "Didn' you ever care?' she added.
sDid you like tn other men jus tn same?
He ism like tn other men, Jim ISM: he
doesn' think o drinkin' an spendin', an
layin' out all his money on himselfin plays
an drink He's chapel man, Jim is"
'He's a saint, said Cass
Emily was following weariIy up the
stairs and for moment or two was silent.
'You don't speak very kind o Jim,' she
said presently, in tone of querulous.
vague resentment
Cass laughed little as she reached her
door. ''You'm able to do that verse;, EN-"
she said. "Speak kind and do kind; that's
fur you. What say an dos no Odds
She entered the room where her mother
was sleeping and shut the door behind her,
and Emily went on to her little cupboard
like bed room near the sky. Sleep came
quickly TO neither tonight. Emily was
too happy to 80 prosaically to bed; shewas
tired with the days running to and fro,
but sleep was far from her ewes. She sat
at the foot of her bed and leaned her head
against the wall, and in a slow, happy
fashion her thoughts rehearsed the inter
view OF an hour or two ago, what Jim had
said; what she had answered; at what point
in the interview Jim's grave, gray eyes had
smiled at her; how she had looked down
at her cotton gown and wished that she
had starched it ON Monday; how Jim had
kissed her and she had hastily pulled down
her sleeves from her elbows to her wrists
with feeling that it was not seemly to be
courted thus, without her holiday attire,
with bare arms and turnedup gown; how Jim
had kissed her again and she had cried for
happiness, and had continued to cry because
it proved so sweet to be comforted Her
pale little lips relaxed in smiles at the pleas
ant memories. On Sunday she would wear
her. best drab gown, with the ziezag trimming
at the bottom. On Monday-but there
her thoughts became confused and passed
slowly into dreams iu which ambition was
not bounded by sordid probability, and her
best gown was lilac silk and her crinoline
of fashionable dimensions.
Cass even then was wakeful. She Law
still, l,with her hands clasped above her head
upon the pillow, careful not to move lest
her mother should awake and wonder at
her sleeplessness. The tide down below
was beating in noisily against the stones,
but the sound was hushed in the distance,
and Cass was used to the long, monoto-
nous, muffied splash. Her bed faced
window, and now and then when the
clouds parted the moonlight shone colby in.
The clouds travelled up swiftly, shut out
the light, and rolled by toward the west.
The wind had risen; she listened to it as it
whistled mournfully along the bare passages
Of the house. And at last she slept.
1t was dark when she awoke. She
awoke suddenly and sat upright with
quick, vague sense of danger She held
her breath for a moment and listened,
scarcely knowing why she listened and
what she feared. Next moment, above the
splash of the tide and the whistling of the
wind, came strange sound as of glass
loudly cracking in some room below. Cass
sprang OFT at-eff55ed eff bed ind ran out upon the
landing. The air that met her, ,,s7fed hot
and sitting. At that moment the clouds
rolled back and the moonlight streamed in
through the staircase window, and she saw
that staircase and passages were filled with
smoke, which came up in dense volumes
from some room below. Crying loudly the
ALARM of 'Fire!" she ran back to her
mother to awake her. Her mother was
awake; in another moment all the house
seemed to be awake; doors were opening,
footsteps hurrying through the passages,
friends calling to friends, those who slept
below calling Justify the alarm to those who
slept above.
A moments pause in her mother room,
and Cass fled up stairs The Babel was
great, but the men slept soundly, and some
might still be sleeping. One of the younger
men, Dan Earthly, was just before her,
speeding upward on the same errand. He
ran up the narrow staircase to the garrets,
and Cass passed hurriedly from door to
door on the floor below. The doors were
open; no one answered when she called.
She heard Dan Earthy's voice above and
heard him descending again. The open
doors seemed to shut out the moonlight;
she had to grope her way back through the
passage to the stairs.
On the landing and the stairs below, as
she ran down, all was noise, rush, confu-
sion. Every one was escaping. Only,
through the smoke, Jim was coming up.
He was breathless; he looked at Cass and
looked beyond her. Cass understood. In
moment, at the first sight of him, two
thoughts had flashed through her mind.
Emily slept in one of the garret rooms; Jim
had not seen her. Dan Earthly must have
passed her door and overlooked it; his call
had not aroused her, and Jim was daring
danger to awaken her. There was peril in
the errand; his face betrayed it. Before
he reached her she spoke.
"Go back, Jim. Safe-she's safe. Ems
gone. I saw her go"
He turned at once. There was little
lad belonging to one of the watermen ON
the landing just below him. He caught
the child in his arms and ran down with
him through the smoke. Without mo
ments pause Cass turned, too, and ran
back to the topmost story to Emily s room.
The moon was hidden again behind the
clouds, and the passages were dark. Cass
called as she mounted the steep stairs, but
there was no answer from above The
smoke that assembled with herseemed denser
than ever-stiAing, binding, sufEocating,
She went briskly on, bruising herselfagainst
jutting angle of the wall and wooden
chest standing in the passage. The door
of Emily's room was open. She entered
and called again But the room was empty.
Emily was gone. She had been sleeping
lightly, had been the first to hear the alarm,
the first of all to escape. Cass looked
around and turned again to retreat
Two houses were destroyed in that fire
in 1860. And one life was lost. Gone
life only" said the local papers next day.
The houses had been SO old, the alarm so
late, the spread of FIRE SO rapid after the
alarm fhaf thara eoor.,od nl.,,lrA ..oa... e..