The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-08-18
Just an Iron Rod
BY c. A. STEPHENS.
oooooooooocccoooooooooocooocco-

men came down the road, riding their
team horses
The fires crossed the river up
here in the woods!' one of them
shouted to me. It's a hot one!
You'd better be on the novel
" What do you think, Elsie?'
said /.
Let's save our house.' she ex-
claimed. But neither of us realized
what was coming; IL we had, we
should have run with the others.
I'VE went on soaking the house and
wetting the ground round it for ten
/ or fifteen minutes more, the smoke
getting thicker all the time. We
heard a woman crying UP the road
. and pretty soon saw her coming, try
/ ing to run, carrying one child in her
arms and pulling another along by
| the hand. When she saw us throw
ing water, she turned in and came
to the door. 1t was one of the Hun
garian miners wives and we could
not understand much that she said,
save that a great fire was coming. |
! did not know what to do about hav-
ing her stop there; for in case our
house burned, it was wasting time
for her to tarry there with those
children.
While Elsie was talking to her
| another woman, a stranger to us,
came running, and with her was a
boy ten or twelve years old. They
also turned in; and close behind
them badly frightened old China
man made his appearance from over
the river. He, too, ran to the door
and pushed inside, jabbering ex-
citedly. | gave him Elsie's bucket
and set him to passing water from the
tank to me.
Thus far there had been no fire
in sight, merely storm of thick
smoke and ashes driving past. Then
all at once flames appeared every
where In the woods, on both sides of
the river and all about us! Such a
fierce wave of heat made itself felt
That we all ran inside and shut the
door. 1t was so hot that knew the
house would soon dry and burn un-
less l kept 1t wet.
Il set a box on top of table,
grabbed an ak and cut hole through
the roof large enough to put my head
and shoulders out. Elsie and the
Chinaman passed up buckets of water
to me and | sluiced the roof. If the
shack had been large house I could
not have done much, of course, but
being so small, l kept the roof wet
and sheet of water running off the
caves to the ground.
Within three minutes It grew so
not that | could not keep my head
out at the hole. Waves of clear fame
swept overhead. Hot, blazing Gin
ders came in at the hole; I had to
soak blanket and stuff it in to keep
the fire out.
We heard pitiful cries at the door
and Elsie opened it crack. There
lay two more Chinese, who had
crawled there through the smoke and
hre; their clothes were burning, their
very hair was singed! We pulled
them in at the door and threw water
on them.
The roar of the fire and the wind
outside was now awful-like a great
furnace roaring up its chimney. But
soon above it all we heard a fright
full squealing. Four horses. with
which some teamsters had been draw
ing load of lumber up the river,
came galloping along the road, with
broken harness flying. The luckless
beasts either saw or smelled the
water on our house. Instinctively
they rushed to the door and crowded
their bodies against the dripping
house. Elsie looked out at the door.
o the poor creatures. she cried.
Shall let them crowd ino'
I'VE can't said. There's no
room But one O. them thrust his
head in as she spoke.
Il rushed to push the door to. but
the horse pushed harder than I could
hold. He forced his way in among
us, his name all afire, his whole coat
smoking! We had to get out of the
way and make room for him. But I
managed to shut the door. Two of
the other horses perished just out
side; the fourth ran a little way
down the road and fell and died
there.
There was hardly space to stir
inside our little front room. The
horse SQuealed and groanad from his