Year: 1879

nine days wonder; gave place to the
successful candidate and the mutterine
Smith, and was forgotten.


Sene' s father, working at Meg Match's
shoes-she never was to wear those
shoes, poor Megi-heard at ten minutes
before five what he thought to be the
rumble of an earthquake under his very
feet, stood with bated breath waiting
for the crash. As nothing further ap.
peared to happen he took his stick and
limped out into the street.


A vast crowd surged through it from
end to end. Women with white lips
were counting the mills-Pacific, At
lantic, Washington, Pemberton. Where
was Pemberton?


Where Pemberton had winked its
| many eyes last night, and hummed with
its iron mouth this noon, a cloud of
dust, black, silent, horrible, puffed q
hundred feet into the air.


Aseneth opened her eyes after time.
Beautiful green and purple lights had
been dancing all about her, but she had
no thoughts. 1t occurred to her now
that she must have been struck on the
head. The church clocks were striking
eight. A bonfire which had been lit at
a distance, to light the citizens in the
work of rescue, cast a CLEAN through
the debris across her two hands, which
lay clasped together at her side. One
of her fingers, she saw, was gone; it
was the finger which held Dicks little
engagement ring. Her feet, still tan
gled in the gearing which had tripped
her, were buried beneath q pile of
bricks. -


A broad piece of flooring that had
fallen slantwise, rooted her in and saved
her from the mass of iron-work over
head, which would have crushed the
breath out Of Hercules. Fragments of
looms, shafts and pillars were in heaps
about. A little girl who worked in her
room-a mere child-was crying be-
tween her groans for her mother. Del
Ivory sat in little open space cush-
ioned about with reels of cotton; she
had shallow cash upon her cheek; she
was ringing her hands.


They were at work from the outside,
saving entrances through the labyrinth
of planks. A dead woman lay close by,
and Sene saw them drag her out. 1t
was Meg Match. One of the pretty
Irish girls was crushed quite out of
sight. Only one hand was free; she
moved it feebly. They could hear her
calling for Jimmy Mahoney! and would
they be sure to give him back the hand
kerchief? Poor Jimmy Mahoney. By
and by she called no more, and in a
little while the hand was still. On the
other side of the slanting floor, some
at home. She was asking God to take
care of it for her,-"For Christ's sake"
she said. Sene listened for the amen,
but it was never spoken. Beyond they
dug a man out from underneath dead
body unhurt. He crawled to his feet
and broke out into blasphemies.


Del cried presently that they were
cutting them out. The glare of bon
fires struck through an opening; saws
and axes flashed; voices grew distinct.


"They never can get at me-" said
Sene. al must be able to crawl. If
you could get some of those bricks off
my feet, Delp'


Del took off two or three in a fright
ened way; then seeing the blood on
them, sat down and cried.
+ A Scotch girl with one arm shattered,
crept up and removed the pile, and then
tainted.


The opening broadened, frightened;
the cool night wind blew in; the soft
SChC
leaped within her. Out in the wind
and under the sky she could stand
again, after all. Back in the little
bright kitchen where the sun shone.
and she could sing a song, there would
yet be place for her. She thought of
her father, of Dick, of the supper table
set for three. Life-even her life grew
sweet now, that it was slipping from
her. She worked her head from under
the beam, and raised herself on her ell
bow. At that moment she heard a cry:
"Fire, fire! God Almighty help them!
The ruins are on firer'


A man working over the debris from
the outside had taken the notion, it be-
ing rather dark just then, to carry e
lantern with him.


For Gods sake" a voice cried from
the crowd, d" don't stay there with that
ightr'


But before the words had died upon
the air, it was the dreadful fate of the
man with the lantern to let it fall, and
it broke upon the ruined mass.


That was at nine o'clock. What
there was to be seen from then till
morning could never be told or forgot
ten.


"Del," said Sene presently. 81 smell
the smoke" And in little while,
:" How red it is growing away over
there to the left"


To lie here and watch the hideous
redness crawling after her, springing at
her! 1t had seemed greater than rea-
son could bear at first.


Now it did not trouble her. She
grew little faint, and her thoughts
wandered. She put her head down up
on her arm, and shut her eyes. Dream
lily she heard them saying a dreadful
thing outside, about one of the over
seers; at the alarm of fire he had cut
his throat, and before the flame had
touched him he was taken out. Dream
lily she heard Del cry that the shaft be-
hind the heap of reels was growing hot.
Dreamily she saw the tiny puff of smoke
struggle through the cracks of bro
ken fly frame.


They were working to save her with
rigid, stern faces. A plank snapped, a
rod yielded; they drew out the Scotch
girl; her hair was singed; then a man
with blood upon his face and wrist held
down his arms.


There's time for one more! God
save the rest of ye-I can'tr'


Del sprang; then stopped-even Del
stopped, ashamed, and looked back
at the cripple.


Aseneth at this sat up erect. The
latent heroism in her awoke. All her
thoughts grew clear and bright. The
tangled skein of her perplexed and
troubled winter unwound suddenly.
This, then, was the way. 1t WAS better
so. God had provided himself lamb
for the burnt offering.





sent you with my dear love, and that it
is all right"


And Del at the first word went.


Sene sat and saw them drag her out;
it was a slow process, the loose sleeve
of her factory sacque was scorched.