May had just returned home, and having learned this little piece of news, which she very properly deemed not at all complimentary to herself, was in as vexable a mood as her amiability ever allowed. Her cousin Hal suddenly entered the room in a rather boisterous manner, with the exclamation:
"Hurrah! May, I am going to be a fireman!"
"So I should suspect," returned May, a little pettishly.
"Suspect?" said Hal, sobering down in a moment.
May laughed.
"Why will you join such a set of rowdies, Hal? I should think it quite beneath me!"
"Rowdies! Those loafers who hang about the companies, attracted by the excitement and the noise, do not belong to the department."
"You know the old adage, Hal,—'People are known by the company they keep,' that is, 'birds of a feather flock together.'"
"Why, May, this is too bad! They are the noblest fellows in the world."
"Noble! I have lived too long in Philadelphia not to know something about firemen. They used to frighten me almost out of my senses. Once we thought they would set fire to the whole city, murder the people and drink their blood! O, such a savage set you never saw!"