“We are all safe mother, Mammy is here. Don’t be frightened. We have done everything possible and the fire is practically out now,” said Constance, passing her arm about her mother who was trembling violently.
“Don’t be alarmed, mother. It isn’t really so dreadful as it might have been; it truly isn’t,” said Eleanor soothingly. “Loads of things have been saved.”
“Yes, Mammy has outgeneraled us all, Mrs. Carruth,” cried Hadyn Stuyvesant, who now came hurrying upon the scene. “I guess she has shown more sense than all the rest of us put together, for she’s kept her head.”
“And oh, my dear! My dear, if all else were lost there is one invaluable treasure spared to you! Come with me. I saved it for you with my own hands. Come!” cried Miss Pike, as she slipped her arm through Mrs. Carruth’s and hurried her willy-nilly across the lawn.
There was the little round mirror in its quaint old-fashioned frame leaning against the tree and reflecting all the weird scene in its shining surface, and there, too, directly in front of it, strutted a lordly game cock which belonged to the Carruths’ next door neighbor. How he happened to be there, in the midst of so much excitement and confusion no one paused to consider, but as Miss Pike hurried poor Mrs. Carruth toward the spot, Sir Chanticleer’s burnished ruff began to rise and the next instant there was a defiant squawk, a frantic dash of brilliantly iridescent feathers, and the cherished heirloom lay shattered beneath the triumphant game-cock’s feet as he voiced a long and very jubilant crow.
It was the stroke needed, for in spite of the calamity which had overtaken her this was too much for Mrs. Carruth’s sense of humor and she collapsed upon the piano stool which stood conveniently at hand, while Miss Pike bewailed Chanticleer’s deed until one might have believed it had been her own revered ancestor’s mirror which had been shattered by him.
Just then Mammy came hurrying upon the scene and was quick enough to grasp the situation at a glance.
“Bress de Lawd, Honey, ain’ I allers tol’ ye’ chickens got secon’ sight? Dat roos’er see double suah. He see himself in dat lookin’ glass an’ bus’ it wide open, an’ he see we-all need ter laf stidder cry, an’ so he set out ter mek us.”
At sight of her Mrs. Carruth stretched forth both hands like an unhappy child and was gathered into her faithful old arms as she cried:
“But oh, Mammy; Mammy, the insurance; the insurance. If I had only been able to pay it yesterday.”