man had accidentally fallen, breaking the lamp she carried,
and that the fire was fed by oil.

Like a flash there came into his mind the memory of that night when
Dud Wilson overturned a lamp on the floor of his news-stand, and he
had heard it said then that the property might have been saved if the
boys had smothered the flames with their coats, or any fabric of
woollen, instead of trying to drown it out with water.

He pulled off his coat in a twinkling, threw it over the prostrate
woman, and added to the covering rag rugs from the floor, pressing
them down firmly as he said, in a trembling voice, much as though
speaking to a child:

"Don't get scared! We can't put the fire out with water; but I'll soon
smother it."

"You needn't bother about me, my child; but attend to the house! It
would be dreadful if we should lose the dear old home!"

"I'll get the best of this business in a jiffy; but it won't do to
give you a chance of bein' burned."

"There is no fire here now." And Aunt Hannah threw back the rugs,
despite Seth's hold upon them, to show that the flames were really
quenched. "For mercy's sake, save the house! It's the only home I ever
knew, an' my heart would be wellnigh broken if I lost it!"

Before she had ceased speaking Seth was flinging rug after rug on the
burning oil, for Aunt Hannah, like many another woman living in the
country, had an ample supply of such floor coverings.

Not until he had entirely covered that line of flame, and had danced
to and fro over the rugs to stamp out the last spark of fire, did he
venture to open the outside door, and it was high time, for the
pungent smoke filled the kitchen until it was exceedingly difficult to
breathe.

The little woman remained upon the floor where Seth had first found
her, and it was only after the night breeze was blowing through the
room, carrying off the stifling vapor, that the boy had time to wonder
why she made no effort to rise.

"Are you hurt?" he cried anxiously, running to her side.

"Never mind me until the fire is out."

"There is no more fire, an' I'm bound to mind you! Are you hurt?"

"It doesn't seem possible, my dear, an' yet I can't use either ankle
or wrist. Of course the bones are not broken; but old people like me
don't fall harmlessly as do children."

Seth was more alarmed now than when he saw the flames of the burning
oil threatening the destruction of the building, and he dumbly
wondered why Gladys did not make