“It would be dangerous to go downstairs,” she said; “we must just wait here at the window until the firemen bring us a ladder.”

“Oh, Mother!” Johnnie Jones said, “do you think they’ll come soon?”

“Listen!” Mother answered.

Then Johnnie Jones heard a sound that made him clap his hands with joy.  Clang!  Clang!  Clang!  Galloping down the street came the splendid big fire-horses drawing the hook-and-ladder.  Clang!  Clang!  Clang!  Down the street came the fire-engine, the hose carriage, and the salvage corps wagon.

Quick as a flash the firemen saw Mother and the children at the window!  Quicker than you can think, they had two long ladders placed against the two window sills.  Then two strong firemen climbed up.  One of them helped Mother and the baby to reach the ground, the other looked after Johnnie Jones.

Maggie and Kathie did not wait to be helped, they stepped down the ladder faster than one would have thought possible, and reached the ground first of all.

Jack did not know how to use a ladder, so he was thrown out of the window by one fireman, and caught in a blanket by two others.  He wasn’t hurt in the least, though Johnnie Jones had been worried for fear he might be, but ran straight to his little master.

“If it had not been for Jack’s telling us there was a fire, we might not have been able to leave the house so quickly,” said Mother, as she caressed the dog.

Elizabeth’s mother, who lived across the street, asked Mrs. Jones and the children to come into her house.  They went, and stood at the window watching the fire until it was out.

It was a beautiful sight, for the flames flashed out of the thick smoke and made the whole neighborhood bright.  Poor Mother felt too sad at seeing her home burn to enjoy the beauty of the fire, but as it was the very first fire he had ever seen, Johnnie Jones did enjoy it, although he was sorry, too.

“Never mind, Mother dear,” he said, trying to comfort her.  “Father will build us a new house if this one burns down.”

All this time the brave firemen were working to extinguish the fire.  They had unhitched the horses, and tied them, at a safe distance from the house.  Some of them had fixed the hose to the engine and were pumping great streams of water onto the flames.  Others were inside the house fighting the fire; and the salvage men were trying to save the furniture and pictures and curtains.

Soon the flames became lower, and lower, until at last they died away, and the fire was out.  Then the horses were hitched again to the engine, and hose carriage, and the other wagons.  The whistle in the engine was blown, and all went back to the engine houses where they belonged.  Not as they had come, in a swift gallop, but slowly, for now men and horses were tired.

Soon the neighborhood was quiet again, and everyone returned to bed.  The Jones’s passed the rest of the night in Elizabeth’s house.