o school
I forgot it, so I thought of another one. Mr. Richards said that he must
give me the praise of being the best speaker that spoke in the
afternoon. Ahem!

_February_ 6.--We were awakened very early this morning by the cry of
fire and the ringing of bells and could see the sky red with flames and
knew it was the stores and we thought they were all burning up. Pretty
soon we heard our big brass door knocker being pounded fast and
Grandfather said, "Who's there?" "Melville Arnold for the bank keys," we
heard. Grandfather handed them out and dressed as fast as he could and
went down, while Anna and I just lay there and watched the flames and
shook. He was gone two or three hours and when he came back he said that
Mr. Palmer's hat store, Mr. Underhill's book store, Mr. Shafer's tailor
shop, Mrs. Smith's millinery, Pratt & Smith's drug store, Mr.
Mitchell's dry goods store, two printing offices and a saloon were
burned. It was a very handsome block. The bank escaped fire, but the
wall of the next building fell on it and crushed it. After school
to-night Grandmother let us go down to see how the fire looked. It
looked very sad indeed. Judge Taylor offered Grandfather one of the
wings of his house for the bank for the present but he has secured a
place in Mr. Buhre's store in the Franklin Block.

_Thursday, February_ 7.--Dr. and Aunt Mary Carr and Uncle Field and Aunt
Ann were over at our house to dinner to-day and we had a fine fish
dinner, not one of Gabriel's (the man who blows such a blast through the
street, they call him Gabriel), but one that Mr. Francis Granger sent to
us. It was elegant. Such a large one it covered a big platter. This
evening General Granger came in and brought a gentleman with him whose
name was Mr. Skinner. They asked Grandfather, as one of the trustees of
the church, if he had any objection to a deaf and dumb exhibition there
to-morrow night. He had no objection, so they will have it and we will
go.

_Friday_.--We went and liked it very much. The man with them could talk
and he interpreted it. There were two deaf and dumb women and three
children. They performed very prettily, but the smartest boy did the
most. He acted out David killing Goliath and the story of the boy
stealing apples and how the old man tried to get him down by throwing
grass at him, but finding that would not do, he threw stones which
brought the boy down pretty quick. Then he acted a boy going fishing and
a man being