t the boy and girl had endured more from
the suffocating vapor than from the fire itself. Looking down at their
garments, they were surprised to find them scorched in several places,
and Nellie gave just the faintest scream when a pungent odor directed
her gaze to a large hole burning in her dress.

Nick glanced around, and, understanding what the matter was, called
rather sharply:

"Pinch it out!"

She was already doing so, and she asked:

"Why don't you pinch out that fire on your coat?"

Just then her brother jumped into the air and shouted, "Oh--ouch!" for
the burning sleeve had gone through the shirt and reached the bare skin.
He whipped off his coat in a twinkling, dipped it hastily into the
water, doing the same with his right elbow, the element which
extinguished the smoking garment being very grateful to the scorched
limb.

"Nellie," said he, "just cast your eye over me, and let me know whether
there are any more fires going."

He made up his mind that if she reported other conflagrations breaking
out, he would subdue them in a lump by taking a header in the pond,
whose shore they reached at that moment. But Nellie said he was in no
danger so far as she could see, of immediate combustion and when she
came to examine her own garments they were also free from the same
peril.

"Now, what shall we do that we have got here?" she asked, as, after
walking a few steps, he came to a stop.

"Wait, and see how things are coming out," he answered. "I begin to
feel tired, so suppose we sit down and rest ourselves."

The moment this was done, both uttered an exclamation of pleasure; for
the relief from the distressing smoke was so great that it was as if
they had emerged into the open country, where there was none of it at
all.

"Why did we not think of this before?" said Nick; "we ought to have
known that smoke doesn't keep close to the ground."

The atmosphere was not clear by any means, but the change was so marked
that it appeared more than pure, and they sat several minutes gratefully
inhaling that from which it seemed they had been shut off for many
hours.

But their rejoicing was too soon; for, though it may be true that in a
burning building the surest place in which to gain enough air to support
life is close to the floor, yet there can be so much of the strangling
vapor that it will penetrate everywhere.

Less than five minutes had passed, when a volume of smoke swept over and
enveloped them, so