"Well, the bucket brigade might as well have stayed in bed for all the good it did," remarked Cole Bishop, who had recovered his usual calmness. "You'd ought to had a couple of force-pumps like mine."
"Oh, you boys clear out," advised the constable. "First thing you know you'll git hurt."
"Huh! I guess if it hadn't been for some of us boys, there'd be a bigger loss than there is," retorted Cole.
"That's so," agreed Mr. Stimson. "Bert and Vincent saved me several hundred dollars by getting out them horses."
"Any of 'em hurt?"
"The bay mare's a little lame, from jumpin', an' the roan gelding is scratched on the fore quarter. But, land! that's nothin'. They'll be all right in a day or two."
"Pretty heavy loss, ain't it, neighbor Stimson?" asked Mr. Peter Appelby, who lived next to the man whose barn was now but a mass of glowing embers.
"Yes, 'tis, but I got insurance. I'm glad it wasn't the house."
"Guess you kin be. Land! but it did go quick! I never see such a fierce fire. I sure thought them two boys would be burned to death," remarked Nate Jackford, another neighbor.
"So did I," admitted Mr. Stimson. "It's been a terrible night."