Terrific blows were applied on the door, which yielded to the pressure and fell back splintered from top to bottom. Fire! Fire! yelled the foremost man of the party. Still no response from the inmates. By this time half a dozen men had gathered in the room, and were busily engaged in throwing out articles of furniture, hunting for water, and endeavoring to put out the fire, which, with the draft of the open door, was already encircling the room.
“Good God!” cried one of the men, opening a bedroom door and discovering Elsie and Margaret asleep. “Here are two women! Wake up! Wake up! The house is on fire!”
Elsie sprang up dazed and bewildered.
“On fire?” she cried as if dimly understanding. “O Meg! O Meg! wake up! We’ll burn!” and seizing Margaret by the shoulder she undertook to wake her. There was no response from Margaret, who lay like one dead.
“There ain’t no time to waste,” called the man. “Come, get up out of here,” and he shook her vigorously. So heavy a stupor was upon her she could make no reply, and the man finally lifted her by main force and called to Elsie, “Come on, girl—there ain’t no time to fool away.”
Just then arose the cry, “We can’t get a drop of water! Everything is frozen solid!”
“Let her go, boys! Throw out the things! No use trying to save her!”
At that moment Elsie appeared in the doorway. “My brother! My brother Gilbert! He’s in there!” pointing to a door that seemed barred by the flames. “Let me wake him,” and she was about to rush through the flames, clad only in her night-dress and with bare feet, when the little knot of men threw themselves in her way. One of them, axe in hand, dashed through the flames, and a moment later they heard the sound of shivering glass, while Gilbert awoke from a boy’s sound slumber on the snow outside of his room. The man with the axe followed the boy’s exit through the window, and appeared at the outer doorway a moment later. “Any one else in the house?” he asked.
“No,” said Elsie growing cooler as she realized the safety of Margaret and Gilbert. “Save the books, the organ, and the desk if everything else goes.”
“All right, but you better put for the neighbor’s. We’ll bring you some clothes and save the furniture too. Now, boys, pitch in!”