s in an
"L" at the back of the house, to the front part, where Mrs. Montague's
room was, and where the housemaids belonging to the hotel slept. By this
time Mr. Montague had gotten upstairs; but he found the passageway to
his wife's room so full of flames and smoke, that, though he tried again
and again to force his way through, he could not. He disappeared for a
time, then he came to Mr. Morris and got his boy, and took him to some
rooms over his bank, and shut himself up with him.

For some days he would let no one in; then he came out with the look of
an old man on his face, and his hair as white as snow, and went out to
his beautiful house in the outskirts of the town.

Nearly all the horses belonging to the hotel were burned. A few were
gotten out by having blankets put over their heads, but the most of them
were so terrified that they would not stir.

The Morris boys said that they found the old Italian sitting on an empty
box, looking at the smoking ruins of the hotel. His head was hanging on
his breast, and his eyes were full of tears. His ponies were burned up,
he said, and the gander, and the monkeys, and the goats, and his
wonderful performing dogs. He had only his birds left, and he was a
ruined man. He had toiled all his life to get this troupe of trained
animals together, and now they were swept from him. It was cruel and
wicked, and he wished he could die. The canaries, and pigeons, and
doves, the hotel people had allowed him to take to his room, and they
were safe. The parrot was lost--an educated parrot that could answer
forty questions, and, among other things, could take a watch and tell
the time of day.

Jack Morris told him that they had it safe at home, and that it was very
much alive, quarreling furiously with his parrot Bella. The old man's
face brightened at this, and then Jack and Carl, finding that he had had
no breakfast, went off to a restaurant near by, and got him some steak
and coffee. The Italian was very grateful, and as he ate, Jack said the
tears ran into his coffee cup. He told them how much he loved his
animals, and, how it "made ze heart bitter to hear zem crying to him to
deliver zem from ze raging fire."

The boys came home, and got their breakfast and went to school. Miss
Laura did not go out. She sat all day with a very quiet, pained face.
She could neither read nor sew, and Mr. and Mrs. Morris were just as
unsettled. They talked about the fire in low tones, and I could se