We found Aunt Mercy apparently in an unpleasant mood, from some mysterious cause. But Ned talked away in a lively manner, and when she began to brighten up, he gradually approached the subject which he really had in mind.
"Aunty," said he, sympathetically, "don't you ever feel afraid of fire?"
"Yes, indeed, Edmund Burton," said she. "I'm afraid of it all the time, especially since I've had this new girl in the kitchen. It seems to me she's very careless."
"If your house should take fire in the night, and burn up the stairs the first thing, how would you get out?" said Ned.
"I really don't know," said she. "I ought, by good rights, to be taken out of the window and down a ladder by some gallant fireman. But it seems to me they don't have any such gentlemen now for firemen as they used to. They're more of a rowdy set."
"They're certainly not very gentle," said Ned. "Did you hear how they knocked Mr. Glidden's house and furniture to pieces at the last fire?"
"Yes; but why were they allowed to do so?" said Aunt Mercy.
"That's it," said Ned. "Somebody, out of all the people there, ought to have had sense enough to stop them. As for myself, I wasn't there. I was going, but was detained on the way."
"If you had been, you'd have stopped them, I've no doubt," said his aunt.
"I should have tried to, I hope," said Ned. "And now, Aunty, I'd like to show you a little invention for doing away with all those horrors."