Sally barely repressed a chuckle. "I'll stay, thank you, Dick; for Uncle John, you know."
"Good girl, Sally. I hope I'll fare as well when I'm old. Come whenever you get ready. Somebody will be up and I think we have room for everybody. Will Doctor Sanderson come now?" Dick added.
Doctor Sanderson thanked him, but elected to stay with Sally, and Sally urged Dick not to expect them and on no account to stay up for them.
Dick and Henrietta and Mrs. Ladue had scarcely gone when the roaring engine choked, gave a few spasmodic snorts and its roaring stopped.
"What's the matter with it?" Sally asked. "Why has it stopped?"
"Colic," Fox replied briefly.
Sally chuckled again and took his arm. He made no objection. The engine seemed to be struggling heroically to resume its roaring and there was much running of firemen and shouting unintelligible orders, to which nobody paid any attention. In the midst of the confusion, Mr. Hazen appeared. He was evidently very tired and he shivered as he spoke to Sally.
"I have done all I could," he said. "That wasn't much. Where are the others, Sally?"
Sally told him. "You must be very tired, Uncle John," she went on, anxiously. "And you are wet through and colder than a clam. Your teeth are positively chattering."
He looked down at himself and felt of his clothes. The edge of his overcoat and the bottoms of his trousers were frozen stiff. "I guess I am tired," he replied, trying to call up a smile, "and I am a little cold. I've been so occupied that I hadn't noticed. And I slipped on one of their piles of ice. It didn't do any harm," he added hastily. "I think I'll go over to Stephen's—Captain Forsyth's. He won't mind being routed out. What will you do, Sally? Why don't you and Fox come, too?"