"And 'twas Johnny who put it out," said Sue.
"Sue and Katie screamed, and made the alarm," said Johnny.—"So they got the engine started, did they?"
"Yes," replied Mr. Le Bras: "it was just going back into the engine-house when we came by there. As we turned the corner, we heard a man saying our house was on fire; and I thought your mother would die before I got her home, although I called her attention to the fact that the engine was going back."
"I feel better now," said Mrs. Le Bras. "So there hasn't been a fire at all! I never had such a fright before in all my life!"
But Mrs. Le Bras was still so nervous that her husband would not allow the children to talk about the accident any more, after they and Katie had fully explained the occurrence. The conversation regarding it was ended for the evening by Johnny's saying to his father, "That was a pretty good experiment to illustrate how soon a fire will stop if the supply of oxygen is cut off: only it was an accidental experiment."
"It could not properly be called an experiment," replied his father: "an experiment is something done purposely; but it answered the same purpose."
"I don't understand why the fire went out when Johnny threw the rug over it," said Sue.
"That's what I can't understand," added Kate.
"I'll explain it to you to-morrow," said Johnny. "Alec Miner is coming over to-morrow after school to see me perform some experiments: and while I am performing some of them, I will explain how a fire is caused by the uniting of oxygen with carbon and hydrogen; for it is nothing but a chemical union, like ever so many that can be made; only it is so common that folks don't think any thing about it."
"So common that folks don't think about it?" said Sue.