"I'm not going to let you risk your life for those things. There are no other buildings near by that the fire can damage. The rain is coming down in torrents, and it will prevent the flames setting anything else on fire. Let's all go out on the porch and watch it burn," she added, and while the storm continued unabated, they huddled together at the end of the porch watching while the barn slowly burned to its foundations.
"For how much did you have it insured, Joe?" asked his wife, as the fire died down.
"Five hundred dollars," said her husband.
"Well, it's a loss, I know," she said, "but it's lucky it burned now instead of later in the season, when it would have been full of grain and implements. I'm glad we've been keeping the live stock in the fields lately."
"Well," said her husband, "there's no use of crying over spilled milk or burned barns, so I say we all go back to bed, for the fire's nearly out and this rain would soon put out any new place it might start up."
"I think it's perfectly splendid, Uncle Joe," said Ruth, now that the lightning had ceased flashing; "this will give Bob and me a chance to build you and Aunt Bettie a new barn."
"All right," said her uncle; "you'll probably have a chance now, Ruth, to show us what you can do with a real building."
Hay making soon arrived and now that the barn had been burned, it was necessary that the hay should be cut and stacked in the field to be brought to the new barn later. It was fortunate, indeed, that the implements did not arrive until the week following the destruction of the barn and that the ones already delivered had been in the wagon shed out of danger—consequently they were all saved.
[Illustration: THE SIDE DELIVERY RAKE FLUFFS UP THE HAY AND LETS THE
SUN DO ITS WORK QUICKLY]
[Illustration: THE SELF-LOADER MAKES POSSIBLE THE QUICK STORAGE OF
PROPERLY CURED HAY AND SAVES TONS OF MAN-LIFTING POWER]