the burning sacrifice. A long tongue of flame leaped
up, caught like a live thing the baby's linen dress, and in an instant
he was enveloped in flames.

For one horrible moment the other children stood paralyzed with fright.
Not to the longest day she lives will Cricket forget the awful terror of
that moment, as the thought surged up that, whatever happened, it was
all her fault. Then, with a wild scream, to which all her previous ones
had been as whispers, she darted forward. Kenneth, blind with terror and
pain, beat at the flames with his tiny hands, and ran shrieking down the
beach, fanning the fire to a brighter blaze.

Cricket was upon him in a moment. She flung both her arms closely around
him, stopping his struggles, but the eager flames caught her own light
dress as she did so. Then away she dashed, down over the few steps of
beach between herself and the incoming tide, and, with him in her arms,
threw herself forward in the water. As she rolled over and over, the
sullen flames hissed and died.

Eunice was close behind her, shrieking for help. It was nearly high
tide, and the beach sloped a little more abruptly there than in most
places. Cricket rose to her knees with Kenneth in her arms, stumbled and
fell forward again, face downward, limp with the excitement and the
strain. Eunice, knee-deep in water, dragged them both up, and, between
pulling and half carrying, got them to the water's edge, just as Auntie
Jean, and Eliza, and Luke, came running from different directions. The
flames, still fitfully shooting up from the smouldering seaweed, told
the story.

"Run for the doctor, Luke," cried Auntie Jean, wasting no time in
questions, as she lifted little drenched, burned Kenneth tenderly in her
arms, and flew with him towards the house, leaving Eliza to help
Cricket. Kenneth's clothes were so badly burned that they fell off from
him when she laid him down. He was a dreadful sight, with his golden
curls all gone, his face blackened with smoke and soot, which the water
had only washed off in streaks. It was impossible for her to tell, at
first, how much he was injured. Fortunately, the doctor came almost
immediately.

It was an anxious hour that followed. Kenneth's most serious burns were
on his arms and body, for, while the golden curls were nearly gone, his
poor little face was, by some fortunate chance, only slightly burned,
since, as he ran forward, his curls had blown back. Cricket was burned
quite seve