She was wringing her hands and very much excited.
“Oh! I am glad you have come, Hugh, you and your brave friends. Save the place if you can; it is everything I own in the world. The children would starve if it went. But I must keep on working, for every little bit helps!”
Hugh did not waste another second of time. There was need of haste, for already the fire was creeping along through the dead grass in the orchard, heading straight for the outbuildings, and those stacks of hay. The latter must have caught fire before now only that they were covered by a board shield intended to shed rain.
The scout master began to give his orders as though he had been accustomed to running a fire engine all his life, and also commanding a squad of fire-fighters.
“Get any sort of buckets or other things to carry water. Start that pump to going as lively as you can. Jack, you begin, and someone spell you when you slacken up. Don’t let a fire get started, whatever happens. As soon as you see it smoking, pour water on the place. We’ve just got to fight it off, you hear, fellows!”
“That’s the kind of talk, Hugh,” said Billy, as he picked up a wash boiler and appropriated it to his own individual use.
Each boy hunted high and low for any kind of vessel that could be used to convey water to the exposed sides of the outbuildings. At another time many a hearty laugh would have greeted the queer appearance of some of the things they managed to scare up. Several even dashed into the farm-house and came out carrying pitchers, kitchen tins and even coal buckets!
Of course, one fellow at the pump, no matter how hard he worked, could never supply such a string of constantly going and coming carriers. Hugh looked around to see whether there might not be other means for securing a supply of the greatly needed fluid.
“Here, Monkey, you and some of the rest run over to the duck pond there and fill your buckets that way. It’s not much further than to come to the pump; and the supply of water isn’t going to give out either.”
Just then the woman came staggering along with a bucket that she had filled at the pump. She was almost exhausted, and seeing this, Hugh deliberately took her burden away from her.