And I sez, a-glancin’ at the empty coal-ben,—
“A-comin’ up from the suller.”
“If four tons of coal hain’t a test, I don’t know a test when I see it.”
We had got down in front of the furnace by this time, and I looked down on it pityin’ly, it looked so fearful small, and the cold all round it seemed so intense.
And I sez, “The poor little thing hain’t to blame: it duz the best it can, but it has took too hefty a job on it for its size and constitution.”
He wuz a-leanin’ over the top of the furnace, a-brushin’ off the icicles from his whiskers; and he sez, almost mechanically,—
“You know the man said it wuz such a heater; you know he said it wuz fairly dangerous.”
“Yes,” sez I, “but I learned long ago to put not your trust in princes, or agents,” sez I. “That is Bible, Josiah, part on’t.”
Wall, he shivered so that I got him out of the furnace-room as quick as I could, and then I went up-stairs, a-wroppin’ my thick woollen shawl more closely round my frame, and I looked round to see what had become of my hired woman, for I feared the worst; I feared she had perished.