nel shirt and
carrying an empty bucket advanced to meet them.

"Is the engine coming?" he asked listlessly.

"They hadn't started when I left," answered Mr. Brady, "and I guess you
needn't look for them for fifteen or twenty minutes. Got any water handy
when it does come?"

"I've got a tank full up there, and there's a pond behind the house. But
I don't know's they can do anything. Looks to me like everything's bound
to go. Well, I got insurance."

"Got plenty of buckets?" asked Mr. Brady, peeling off his coat. "How
many men are here?"

"About six or seven, I guess. Yes, there's buckets enough, but the
heat's so fierce----"

"Animals all out?"

"There's some pigs down there. We tried to chase 'em out, but the plaguy
things wouldn't go. We got the horses and cows out and a couple o'
wagons. All my hay's done for, though. And there's a heap o' machinery
in there----"

"Well, we can save the other buildings, can't we?" asked Mr. Brady
impatiently. "Get your buckets and your men together, Corrigan. Here are
five of us, and we can make a line and keep the roofs wet down until the
engine comes, I guess. Send the women for all the pails and things
you've got. Get a hustle on, man!"

Mr. Corrigan hesitated a moment and then trotted away. The water supply
was contained in a wooden tank set some ten feet above ground, and high
beyond that, dimly discernible through the cloud of smoke, the spectral
arms of a wind-mill revolved imperturbably. Mr. Brady, followed by the
boys, went on around to the further side of the burning building. It was
a huge hip-roofed structure. One end, that nearest the house, was
already falling, and the tons of crackling hay in the mows glowed like a
furnace. The heat, even at the foot of the wind-mill, a hundred feet or
more away, was almost intolerable. A row of one-story buildings ran
along one side of the barn, so near that the flying sparks blew over
rather than on to them. Several other detached structures stood at
greater distances. Mr. Brady, surveying the scene, shook his head
doubtfully.

"Guess he's right," he said. "There's not much use trying to save those
nearer buildings. We couldn't stay on those roofs a minute. I guess the
chief danger will be from sparks lighting on the house and that creamery
there. Things are mighty dry."

Four or five men dangling empty buckets, one of them Mr. Corrigan's son
and the others neighbours, came up and asked about the fire department
and Mr