ses of the
fire-brigade were seen rushing at a fatal speed!

It was a terrific moment!

"I have touched the fire-alarm," Mrs. Peterkin exclaimed.

Both rushed to open the front door in agony. By this time the
fire-engines were approaching.

"Do not be alarmed," said the chief engineer; "the furniture shall be
carefully covered, and we will move all that is necessary."

"Move again!" exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, in agony.

Elizabeth Eliza strove to explain that she was only sending a telegram
to her father, who was in Boston.

"It is not important," said the head engineer; "the fire will all be
out before it could reach him."

[Illustration]

And he ran upstairs, for the engines were beginning to play upon the
roof.

Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs again hurriedly; there was more
necessity for summoning Mr. Peterkin home.

"Write a telegram to your father," she said to Elizabeth Eliza, "to
'come home directly.'"

"That will take but three words," said Elizabeth Eliza, with presence
of mind, "and we need ten. I was just trying to make them out."

"What has come now?" exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, and they hurried again
to the window, to see a row of carriages coming down the street.

[Illustration]

"I must have touched the carriage-knob," cried Mrs. Peterkin, "and I
pushed it half-a-dozen times I felt so anxious!"

Six hacks stood before the door. All the village boys were assembling.
Even their own little boys had returned from school, and were showing
the firemen the way to the well.

Again Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs, and a fearful sound arose.
She had touched the burglar-alarm!

The former owner of the house, who had a great fear of burglars, had
invented a machine of his own, which he had connected with a knob. A
wire attached to the knob moved a spring that could put in motion a
number of watchmen's rattles, hidden under the eaves of the piazza.

[Illustration]

All these were now set a-going, and their terrible din roused those of
the neighborhood who had not before assembled around the house. At
this moment Elizabeth Eliza met the chief engineer.

"You need not send for more help," he said; "we have all the engines
in town here, and have stirred up all the towns in the neighborhood;
there's no use in springing any more alarms. I can't find the fire
yet, but we have water pouring all over the house."

Elizabeth Eliza waved her telegram in the air.

"We are only trying to send a telegr