"Pinch it out!"
She was already doing so, and she asked:
"Why don't you pinch out that fire on your coat?"
Just then her brother jumped into the air and shouted, "Oh—ouch!" for the burning sleeve had gone through the shirt and reached the bare skin. He whipped off his coat in a twinkling, dipped it hastily into the water, doing the same with his right elbow, the element which extinguished the smoking garment being very grateful to the scorched limb.
"Nellie," said he, "just cast your eye over me, and let me know whether there are any more fires going."
He made up his mind that if she reported other conflagrations breaking out, he would subdue them in a lump by taking a header in the pond, whose shore they reached at that moment. But Nellie said he was in no danger so far as she could see, of immediate combustion and when she came to examine her own garments they were also free from the same peril.
"Now, what shall we do that we have got here?" she asked, as, after walking a few steps, he came to a stop.
"Wait, and see how things are coming out," he answered. "I begin to feel tired, so suppose we sit down and rest ourselves."
The moment this was done, both uttered an exclamation of pleasure; for the relief from the distressing smoke was so great that it was as if they had emerged into the open country, where there was none of it at all.
"Why did we not think of this before?" said Nick; "we ought to have known that smoke doesn't keep close to the ground."