t its
front. Tremont Street, moreover, which was now untenable, held much
apparatus, and most of this was burned where it stood. Straight up the
slope toward Beacon Street and toward the gold dome of the State House
the fire errantly went. Blank walls between buildings seemed to make
little difference to it; what it could not pierce it ran around. Only
at the extreme end of the burial ground did it pause. Here a
seven-story fireproof building confronted it, and proved equal to the
task. Against the solid walls of this barrier the impetuous visitor
beat in vain, and then, just as suddenly as he had begun his foray, he
subsided. The final sputter of his dying, under the hose streams of
his foes, sounded for all the world like a chuckle. It was as if this
wandering creature had signified that he had accomplished his purpose
in giving the department a good scare, and that he might as well stop.
The firemen stood for a moment to catch breath, gazing on the havoc
wrought by this wild half hour; then, coiling up their hose, they went
to await new orders.

It was now almost two o'clock. The fire had been burning for four
hours; it had completely destroyed two entire city squares and part of
a third, and its course was manifestly just begun. To the north and
west it had strayed as far as it was to go, for the north wind made it
impossible for it to spread farther in that direction, and its westward
swing, as has just been seen, had been checked. The unrestrained main
line of the conflagration was therefore almost due south, following the
direction of the wind's impulsion, but also it tended toward the east,
since all great fires strive, fanlike, to open out. This tendency on
the west the Common effectually vitiated, and the firemen's plan of
campaign was proportionately simplified.

The obvious course now to be pursued was to mass the opposing forces
along the east flank of the conflagration, restricting so far as
possible its spread in that direction, for since the wind made it
impossible to face the fire, no hope lay in direct opposition save
perhaps through the thunderous agency of dynamite. On these lines the
defense set to work anew.

After a thrilling struggle Old South Church had been saved; the
concentration of the fire fighters around its corner had been
efficacious. The stout old structure which had survived so many years
of winters out of the east had survived one peril more. Its brick
walls stood w