The Jamesons

certainly not rich-there was not one positively rich family among us-we were comfortably provided with all the necessities of life. We did not need to open our houses, a

ng-alley, and one of those dangerous chutes, in our village. We felt forbiddingly calm and superior when now and then some strange city people from Grover, the large summ

the break was to be made in such a quarter. One of the most well-to-do, if not the most well-to-do, of us all,

rs, who lives opposite, and who had been sewing at her window-I had noticed her arm moving back and forth, disturbing the shadows of the horse-chestnut tree in the yard-fling open her front door, run out on the piazza, and stand peering around the corner post, with her neck so stretched that it looked twi

he house next below the Powers', came running out. She ran down the

; her elbows jerked out, her chin jerked up, and her skirts switched her thin ankles; Mrs. Ketchum is very stout, and she walked with a kind of quiv

t the matter was. She is a good woman, but the most curious person in our village. She never seems to have enough affairs of her own to thoroughly amuse her. I never saw a boy run as fast as Tommy did-as if his m

possible there was a fire anywhere

" said I, "whe

but all of a sudden the

s. Peter Jones' gate, and Amelia P

d Candace put her head out of the window and

s for a red fire glare on the horizon, but we

melia Powers cried out: "Oh, it's going to Mrs. Li

a parrot's, "Oh, 'Melia! 'Melia! it's Mrs. Liscom's, it's Mrs. Liscom's, and the wind's this way! Come

very apt to have a bad spell when she was over-e

r and looked down the street. Then I learned about the city boarders. She and Amelia, from the way they faced at their sitting-room windows, had seen the Grover sta

Liscom was going to take board

d earn some money and have some

panting-she was almost out of breath-"for,

e about it, because Mrs. Liscom was a second cousin of

t going to burn to the ground, and have somethin

zen clang of the fire-bell; still we could not see any fire, nor even smell any smoke, until

field; it was hard work for Mrs. Ketchum, but Mrs. Jones and I pushed and Adeline pulled, and then we ran along close to the wall toward the house. We certainly began to smell smoke, though we still c

of the kitchen chimney, but Mrs. Ketchum said of course it was on fire inside in the woodwork. "Oh, only to think o

eemed to enjoy it; the water was swishing, the firemen's arms were pumping in unison, and everybody generally running in aimless circle

ing around it in a sort of ivy-tendril fashion, came first. Her two daughters, in blue gowns, with pretty, agitated faces, foll

uld she do but form her family into a line toward th

us imperatively. "Come immediately!" said she; "if the men of this village h

er boarder filled the bucket at the well, and we passed it back from hand to hand, an

e the door; then she stood there, looking as I had never seen her look before. Caroline Liscom has always had the reputation of being a woman of a st

not a selectman goes into office with Mr. Liscom's vote unless it is authorized by M

l majesty which I had never seen in her before. She stood there a second, then she turned and made a backward and forward motion

as if she were so angry that she was fairly reining herself in; and they got out. Then she

y house with water, a

, but Tommy Gregg gave one squeak

chimney always smokes when the wind is west. I don't thank you, any of you, for coming here and turning my house upside down and

s if there had been a shower. Everybody looked abashed, and the chief engineer of the fire department-who is a little nervous

"I want you to go home, and

se to return to the house or to allow my family to do so unless I am officia

roline Liscom, and we all gasped to hear

general on the verge of defeat. She sidled up to Mr. Spear, the chief engineer, who was giving orders to drag home the engine, and said in an unexpectedly sweet voice, li

m in Choctaw, and she was obliged to ask him over

s, ma'am, yes, ma'am, certainly, ma'am, no danger at all, ma'am." Then he

sufficient," said the boarder, thoug

r mother went home, but I ventured, since I was a sort of relation, to go in and offer to help Caroline set things to rights. She

or you, Carol

d woman like Caroline dumb, and send a weak one into hysterics. It was dripping with water, and nearly all the furniture out in the yard piled up pell-mell

id I, and she just shook her head. I knew that those board

salvation. I thought I might as well go home. I offered to give her some pie or cake if hers were spoiled, but she only sh

t door-the side one was dripping as if it were under a waterfall. Just as I r

r having been called by that name, though

a despairing sigh, and the voice

nd a little timid, "Will you please step

nocent, rosy little face, peering over the balustrade at the head of the stairs. "Will you p

downstairs on that account. I looked at Caroline's front stairs, which are rather steep, with some hesitation. I felt shaken, too, on account of the alar

e north window, with a paper-covered book on her knees. She was eating something from a little white box on the window-sill. The boy was at another window, also with a book in which he did not seem to be interested. He looked up at me, as I entered, with a most peculiar expression of mingled innocence and shyness which was almost terror. I could not see why the boy should possibly be afraid of me, but I learned afterward that

not possibly do more. I began to think that perhaps she had some trouble with he

an unpleasant experience," I

must be no standing water near the house, there must not be trees near on account of the dampness, the neighbors must not keep hens-of course, the people of the house must not keep hens-and th

at I did not know what to say. There she was, just arrived; had not ea

oubted if she could find another boarding-place in

my good woman," said she, "that I cannot endure such a rasping manner and voice as that of

d had a right to demand, in my hand, and was withholding them from her. I replied that I knew of no other boarding-pl

ubt are a good plain cook; I am willing to try your house if it is not surrounde

my frugally independent life as wife and widow was strong upon me. I had read and improved my mind. I was a prominent member of the Ladies' Literary Society of our village: I wrote papers which were read at the meetings; I felt, in rea

ders, and I never shall take boarders." Then I turned and went ou

woman, will you please tell Mrs. Liscom that I must have some hot water to make m

n too indignant at the persistent ignoring of my own dignity. I went home and found Louisa Field, my brother's widow, and her little daughter Alice, who live with me, already there. Louisa keeps the district scho

so the story ran, had peeped into the kitchen and had seen it full of smoke from Caroline's smoky chimney when she was kindling the fire; then had run out into the yard, and seeing the smoke out there too, an

little home, at the lounge which I had covered myself, at the threadbare carpet on the sitting-room floor, at the wallpaper which was put on the year before my husband died, at the vases on the shelf, which had belonged to my moth