CHAPTER IX
Spontaneous Combustion
Had the ground opened and disgorged the town, men, women and childrencould hardly have appeared upon the scene with more startlingpromptitude than they appeared within five minutes after Constance'sdiscovery of the smoke. How they got there only those who manage toget to every fire before the alarm ceases to sound can explain, and,as usual, there arrived with them the over-officious, and theover-zealous.
As Constance and Eleanor rushed into the house, the multitude rushedacross the grounds and followed them hotfoot, while one, morelevel-headed than his fellows, hastened to the nearest fire-box toturn in an alarm.
Meanwhile Mammy had also smelt the smoke, and as the girls ran throughthe front hall she came through the back one crying:
"Fo' de Lawd's sake wha' done happen? De house gwine burn down on topour haids?"
"Quick, Mammy. It's Eleanor's room," cried Constance as she flew upthe stairs.
Mammy needed no urging. In one second she had grasped the situationand was up in Mrs. Carruth's room dragging forth such articles andtreasures as she knew to be most valued and piling them into ablanket. There was little time to waste for the flames had madeconsiderable headway when discovered and were roaring wildly throughthe upper floor when the fire apparatus arrived. Mrs. Carruth was outdriving with a friend and Jean was off with her beloved Amy Fletcher.
Only those who have witnessed such a scene can form any adequate ideaof the confusion which followed that outburst of smoke from Eleanor'swindows. Men ran hither and thither carrying from the burning housewhatever articles they could lay their hands upon, to drop them fromthe windows to those waiting below to catch them. Firemen darted inand out, apparently impervious to either flames or smoke, directingtheir hose where the streams would prove most effectual and sendinggallons of water upon the darting flames. The fact that the fire hadstarted in the third-story saved many articles from destruction by theflames, although the deluge of water which flooded the house andpoured down the stairways like miniature Niagaras speedily ruined whatthe flames spared.
Eleanor rushed toward her room but was quickly driven back by a burstof flames and smoke that nearly suffocated her, while Constance flewto Jean's and her own room, meanwhile calling directions to Mammy.Five minutes, however, from the time they entered the house they wereforced to beat a retreat, encountering as they ran Miss Jerusha Pike,a neighbor who never missed any form of excitement or interestingoccurrence in her neighborhood.
"What can I do? Have you saved your ma's clothes? Did you get out thatmirror that belonged to your great-grandmother?" she cried, as shelaid a detaining hand upon Constance's arm.
"I don't know, Miss Pike. Come out quick. It isn't safe to stay hereanother second. We must let the men save what they can. Come."
"No! No! I _must_ save your grandmother's mirror. I know just where ithangs. You get out quick. I won't be a second. Go!"
"Never mind the mirror, there are other things more valuable thanthat," cried Eleanor as she tugged at the determined old lady's arm.But Miss Pike was not to be deterred and rushed away to the secondstory in spite of them.
"She'll be burned to death! I _know_ she will," wailed Constance, as aman ran across the hall calling:
"Miss Carruth, Miss Constance, where are you? You must get out of hereinstantly!"
"Oh, Mr. Stuyvesant, Miss Pike has gone up to mother's room and I mustgo after her."
"You must do nothing of the sort. Come out at once both of you. I'llsee to her when I've got you to a place of safety," and without moreado Hadyn Stuyvesant hurried them both from the house to the lawn,where a motley crowd was gathered, and their household goods andchattels were lying about in the utmost confusion, while otherarticles, escorted by various neighbors, were being borne along thestreet to places of safety. One extremely proper and precise maidenlady was struggling along under an armful of Mr. Carruth'sdress-shirts and pajamas brought forth from nobody knew where. Aportly matron, with the tread of a general, followed her with aflatiron in one hand and a tiny doll in the other, while behind her asmall boy of eight staggered beneath the weight of a wash boiler.
"Where is Mammy? O _where_ is Mammy?" cried Eleanor, clasping herhands and looking toward the burning building.
"Here me! Here me!" answered Mammy's voice as she hurried toward themwith a great bundle of rescued articles. "I done drug dese yer t'ingsf'om de burer in yo' ma's room an' do you keep tight fas' 'em 'twell Icome back. Mind now what I'se telling' yo' kase dere's t'ings in dardat she breck her heart ter lose. I'se gwine back fer sumpin' else."
"O Mammy! Mammy, _don't go_. You'll be burned to death," criedConstance, laying her hand upon Mammy's arm to restrain her.
"You mustn't Mammy! You mustn't," echoed Eleanor.
"Stay here with the girls, Mammy, and let me get whatever it is youare bent upon saving," broke in Hadyn Stuyvesant.
"Aint no time for argufying," cried Mammy, her temper rising at theopposition. "You chillun stan' _dar_ an' tek kere ob _dat_ bundle, lakI tell yo' an' yo', Massa Stuyv'sant, come 'long back wid me," was theultimatum, and, laughing in spite of the gravity of the situation,Hadyn Stuyvesant followed Mammy whom he ever afterward called theGeneral.
As they hurried back to the kitchen entrance the one farthest removedfrom the burning portion of the building, Mammy's eyes were seeminglyawake to every thing, and her tongue loosed of all bounds. As theyneared the dining-room someone was dropping pieces of silver out ofthe window to someone else who stood just below it with skirtsoutspread to catch the articles.
"Ain' dat de very las' bit an' grain o' nonsense?" panted Mammy."Dey's a-heavin' de silver plate outen de winder, an' bangin' it allter smash stidder totin' it froo' de back do', and fo' Gawd's sakelook dar, Massa Stuyv'sant! Dar go de' lasses!" cried Mammy, her handsraised above her head as her words ended in a howl of derision, for,overcome with excitement the person who was dropping the pieces ofsilver had deliberately turned the syrup-jug bottom-side up anddeluged the person below with the contents. Had he felt sure that itwould have been his last Hadyn Stuyvesant could not have helpedbreaking into peals of laughter, nor was the situation rendered lessabsurd by the sudden reappearance of Miss Pike clasping the treasuredmirror to her breast and crying:
"Thank heaven! Thank heaven I'm alive and have _saved_ it. _Where_,where are those dear girls that I may deliver this priceless treasureinto their hands?"
"Out yonder near the hedge, Miss Pike. I'm thankful you escaped. Theyare much concerned about you. Better get along to them quick; I'munder Mammy's orders," answered Hadyn when he could speak.
Off hurried the zealous female while Hadyn Stuyvesant followed Mammywho was fairly snorting with indignation.
"Dat 'oman certain'y _do_ mak' me mad. Dat lookin' glass! Huh! Ireckons when Miss Jinny git back an' find what happen she aint goin'ter study 'bout no lookin' glasses. No suh! She be studyin' 'bout wharwe all gwine put our _haids_ dis yere night. An' dat's what _I_ doneplan fer," concluded Mammy laying vigorous hold of a great roll ofbedding which she had carried to a place of safety just outside thekitchen porch. "Please, suh, tek' holt here an' holp me get it outyander ter de stable, I'se done got a sight o' stuff out derea-reddy," and sure enough Mammy, unaided, had carried enoughfurniture, bedding and such articles as were absolutely indispensablefor living, out to the stable to enable the family to "camp out" forseveral days, and with these were piled the garments hastily snatchedfrom the clothes-lines, Baltie mounting guard over all. Mrs. Carruthhad not been so very far wrong when she told Mammy she believed shecould move the house if necessity arose.
Meanwhile Miss Pike and her rescued mirror had reached the hedge, thegirls breathing a sigh of relief when they saw her bearingtriumphantly down upon them.
"There! There! If I never do another deed as long as I live I shallfeel that I have _not_ lived in vain! What _would_ your poor motherhave said had she returned to find this priceless heirloom destroyed,"she cried, as she rested the mirror against a tree trunk and
claspedher hands in rapture at sight of it.
"Perhaps mother _might_ ask first whether _we_ had been rescued,"whispered Constance, but added quickly, "_there_ is mother now. O Iwonder who told her," for just then a carriage was driven rapidly tothe front gate and as the girls ran toward it Mrs. Carruth steppedquickly from it. She was very white and asked almost breathlessly,"Girls, girls, is anyone hurt? Are you _all_ safe? Where's Mammy?"
"We are all safe mother, Mammy is here. Don't be frightened. We havedone everything possible and the fire is practically out now," saidConstance, passing her arm about her mother who was tremblingviolently.
"Don't be alarmed, mother. It isn't really so dreadful as it mighthave been; it truly isn't," said Eleanor soothingly. "Loads of thingshave been saved."
"Yes, Mammy has outgeneraled us all, Mrs. Carruth," cried HadynStuyvesant, who now came hurrying upon the scene. "I guess she hasshown more sense than all the rest of us put together, for she's kepther head."
"And oh, my dear! My dear, if all else were lost there is oneinvaluable treasure spared to you! Come with me. I saved it for youwith my own hands. Come!" cried Miss Pike, as she slipped her armthrough Mrs. Carruth's and hurried her willy-nilly across the lawn.
There was the little round mirror in its quaint old-fashioned frameleaning against the tree and reflecting all the weird scene in itsshining surface, and there, too, directly in front of it, strutted alordly game cock which belonged to the Carruths' next door neighbor.How he happened to be there, in the midst of so much excitement andconfusion no one paused to consider, but as Miss Pike hurried poorMrs. Carruth toward the spot, Sir Chanticleer's burnished ruff beganto rise and the next instant there was a defiant squawk, a franticdash of brilliantly iridescent feathers, and the cherished heirloomlay shattered beneath the triumphant game-cock's feet as he voiced along and very jubilant crow.
It was the stroke needed, for in spite of the calamity which hadovertaken her this was too much for Mrs. Carruth's sense of humor andshe collapsed upon the piano stool which stood conveniently at hand,while Miss Pike bewailed Chanticleer's deed until one might havebelieved it had been her own revered ancestor's mirror which had beenshattered by him.
Just then Mammy came hurrying upon the scene and was quick enough tograsp the situation at a glance.
"Bress de Lawd, Honey, ain' I allers tol' ye' chickens got secon'sight? Dat roos'er see double suah. He see himself in dat lookin'glass an' bus' it wide open, an' he see we-all need ter laf stiddercry, an' so he set out ter mek us."
At sight of her Mrs. Carruth stretched forth both hands like anunhappy child and was gathered into her faithful old arms as shecried:
"But oh, Mammy; Mammy, the insurance; the insurance. If I had _only_been able to pay it yesterday."
"Huh! Don't you fret ober de 'surance. Jis clap yo' eyes on _dat_,"and Mammy thrust into her Miss Jinny's hands a paper which she hastilydrew from the bosom of her frock.