r glared at her in a curious kind of way, like a broadside
of stoniness, but Caroline did not seem to mind it at all. Then the
boarder changed her tactics like a general on the verge of defeat.
She sidled up to Mr. Spear, the chief engineer, who was giving orders
to drag home the engine, and said in an unexpectedly sweet voice,
like a trickle of honey off the face of a rock: "My good man, am I to
understand that I need apprehend no further danger from fire! I ask
for the sake of my precious family."

Mr. Spear looked at her as if she had spoken to him in Choctaw, and
she was obliged to ask him over again. "My good man," said she,
"_is_ the fire out?"

Mr. Spear looked at her as if he were half daft then, but he
answered: "Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, certainly, ma'am, no danger at
all, ma'am." Then he went on ordering the men: "A leetle more to
the right, boys! All together!"

"Thank you, my good man, your word is sufficient," said the boarder,
though Mr. Spear did not seem to hear her.

Then she sailed into the house, and her son, her two daughters, and
the grandmother after her. Mrs. Peter Jones and Adeline and her
mother went home, but I ventured, since I was a sort of relation, to
go in and offer to help Caroline set things to rights. She thanked
me, and said that she did not want any help; when Jacob and Harry
came home they would set the furniture in out of the yard.

"I am sorry for you, Caroline," said I.

"Look at my house, Sophia Lane," said she, and that was all she would
say. She shut her mouth tight over that. That house was enough to
make a strong-minded woman like Caroline dumb, and send a weak one
into hysterics. It was dripping with water, and nearly all the
furniture out in the yard piled up pell-mell. I could not see how
she was going to get supper for the boarders: the kitchen fire was
out and the stove drenched, with a panful of biscuits in the oven.

"What are you going to give them for supper, Caroline?" said I, and
she just shook her head. I knew that those boarders would have to
take what they could get, or go without.

When Caroline was in any difficulty there never was any help for her,
except from the working of circumstances to their own salvation. I
thought I might as well go home. I offered to give her some pie or
cake if hers were spoiled, but she only shook her head again, and I
knew she must have some stored away in the parlor china-closet, where
the water had not penetrated.

I