Finkler's Field: A Story of School and Baseball

by Ralph Henry Barbour

“It isn’t the house,” gasped Jack. “It’s beyond. See?”

“Stable or something,” answered Sam, plodding breathlessly along. “We’ve beat the other fellows, all right!”

The scene was as light as day. The big white house stood out stark against a glow of flame and a welter of smoke. Upward ascended a stream of sparks that floated a moment in the still air high up against the tops of the big elms. In the glare several persons were visible; Farmer Finkler himself, two of his men, and, near the door of the house, his daughter. Beside her, Rowdy, the dog, his nose in air, was protesting loudly at the unaccustomed proceedings. The farmer and his men were plainly in a condition of panic, for, although a garden hose lay on the ground spouting water no one made any attempt to direct it against the flames. The farmer held a bucket, but the fire had grown so hot that buckets were no longer practical, since it was impossible to get near enough to the flames to throw water on them. As Jack and Sam ran up the farmer saw them.

“Seen the engines?” he shouted hoarsely above the roar and crackle of the flames. “Are they coming?”

“I don’t know, sir,” answered Sam. “We ran across from school. The rest will be here in a minute with buckets. Guess all you can do, though, is to keep the house from going.”

“Buckets don’t do any good,” replied Mr. Finkler, tossing his aside as he spoke. “I telephoned for the engines ten minutes ago. Why don’t they come?”

“It’s two miles,” said Jack, “and I guess it will take them some time. I hope you have insurance, sir?”

“Insurance? On the buildings, of course, I have! But there ain’t any on my horses. Why don’t the engines come?”

Beyond the house, at the side, was an open woodshed some thirty feet long which connected with a small stable. This was nowadays used only as a carriage house. Beyond that again, with only a narrow cart-way between, stood the big barn that was the farmer’s pride and delight. The land sloped here and the lower floor of the structure, reached from the back, was used for the cows and for storage. The main floor, with entrances from the front and further end, held the horse stalls, harness room, grain bins and farming implements and machinery. Above were lofts for hay. It was the small carriage house that was in flames, and even as the boys looked the roof crashed in with a mighty spouting of sparks. On one side the roof of the woodshed was ablaze and on the other the end of the big barn was blistering and here and there little tongues of flame were already working in and out. Jack seized the hose and pulling it toward the shed played the water on the roof. By that time the rest of the boys from school began to arrive, and with them Mr. Talcott. The latter took command of the situation in a minute. A ladder was found and three boys were sent to the woodshed roof. Others formed a bucket line from the hydrant in front of the house and water was passed to the boys on the roof. The hose was directed against the end of the barn in an endeavor to keep that wet until the engines arrived. Luckily there was a good water supply from a tower tank a little distance back of the stable which was filled by means of a gasoline engine from the brook at the foot of the Ridge. Farmer Finkler was induced to send one of his men across to the engine house and start the pump up. The two chemical extinguishers arrived by way of the road and streams from those were directed against the barn. Meanwhile the cows on the lower level were being got out by a number of the boys working under the direction of a farm hand.