Jenny since we come out? Good Lord, where is the child? I thought she
come with me."

"Oh, Jenny's all right!" moaned Eliza. "She'll have gone straight home.
She was going home to spend the night anyway, Mary; don't be scaring us
worse. It's bad enough to lose Miss Wolfe, poor young lady, and she so
bold and daring!"

"_Hold your tongue!_" said Peggy. "Listen to me, girls, and answer
plainly, and not all at once like a flock of foolish sheep. Did any one
see Miss Wolfe go into the house?"

"No, miss, no; we see her go with Mrs. Peyton, and we never thought but
she was all right."

"She may not be there after all!" said Peggy. "Her room is on the other
side, isn't it, Margaret? Come on!"

They ran round to the other side of the house. This was apparently still
untouched, though the fiery tongues came darting over the rooftree every
now and then, hissing and lapping, and the roof itself was covered with
sparks and great patches of burning tinder, fragments of the costly
stuffs and tissues that the house-owner had so dearly prized. The
windows were closed and silent, but all was bright as day in the red
glare of the fire.

"Call, Peggy!" whispered Margaret. "I have no voice."

Even as she spoke, a window in the second story was thrown up, and there
stood Grace herself, very pale, but quiet as usual.

"There's a young woman faint here," she said. "Too much smoke. The
stairs are gone. Is there a ladder, Peggy? Ah, rope! Much better. Clever
child! When I say three--throw!"

Oh, the good days on the Western farm, when little Peggy, on her rough
pony, scampered here and there, lassoing the sheep and calves, and
getting well scolded in consequence! Oh, the other good days at school,
where nerve and muscle learned to follow the quick eye, so that thought
and action seemed to flash together!

The rope hissed upward like a flying snake, but a cloud of smoke drove
past the window, and the outstretched hands missed it. Again it flew,
and this time it was caught, drawn up, and knotted tight inside the
window.

"Now if I had a ladder!" muttered Peggy.

"I saw one," cried Margaret; "I am sure I did. Wait!"

She flew off, and returned followed by a boy with a ladder. It proved
short by several feet.

"Oh, what shall we do!" cried Margaret.

"Hold the ladder steady!" said Peggy. "She'll see to that end, and I
can manage this. Hold it!"

Margaret and the boy grasped the ladder; Peggy ran up it, and stood on
the top r