e is manifestly
the head of her family. It is always, "Mrs. Liscom's house," and
"Mrs. Liscom's property," instead of Mr. Liscom's.

It is always understood that, though Mr. Liscom is the nominal voter
in town matters, not a selectman goes into office with Mr. Liscom's
vote unless it is authorized by Mrs. Liscom. Mr. Liscom is, so to
speak, seldom taken without Mrs. Liscom's indorsement.

Of course, Mrs. Liscom being such a character has always more or less
authority in her bearing, but that day she displayed a real majesty
which I had never seen in her before. She stood there a second, then
she turned and made a backward and forward motion of her arm as if
she were sweeping, and directly red-shirted firemen and boys began to
fly out of the house as if impelled by it.

"You just get out of my house; every one of you!" said Caroline in
a loud but slow voice, as if she were so angry that she was fairly
reining herself in; and they got out. Then she called to the firemen
who were working the engine, and they heard her above all the uproar.

"You stop drenching my house with water, and go home!" said she.

Everybody began to hush and stare, but Tommy Gregg gave one squeaking
cry of fire as if in defiance.

"There is no fire," said Caroline Liscom. "My house is not on fire,
and has not been on fire. I am getting tea, and the kitchen chimney
always smokes when the wind is west. I don't thank you, any of you,
for coming here and turning my house upside down and drenching it
with water, and lugging my furniture out-of-doors. Now you can go
home. I don't see what fool ever sent you here!"

The engine stopped playing, and you could hear the water dripping off
the south end of the house. The windows were streaming as if there
had been a shower. Everybody looked abashed, and the chief engineer
of the fire department--who is a little nervous man who always works
as if the river were on fire and he had started it--asked meekly if
they shouldn't bring the furniture back.

"No," said Caroline Liscom, "I want you to go home, and that is all I
do want of you."

Then the mother boarder spoke--she was evidently not easily put down.
"I refuse to return to the house or to allow my family to do so
unless I am officially notified by the fire department that the fire
is extinguished," said she.

"Then you can stay out-of-doors," said Caroline Liscom, and we all
gasped to hear her, though we secretly admired her for it.

The boarde