"what shall I NEED?" 173 



thought to remain in "inglorious ease," and were made to 

 do duty as carpets in the kitchen, all of the bona fide car- 

 pets being down in their proper places in the deserted main 

 house. That made the four pairs of feet more like them- 

 selves ; but the four bodies hugged up close to the big 

 kitchen stove, and the pine wood was kept freely burning. 

 Now this yellow pine, almost universally used by the 

 " pine-landers" in Florida for cooking purposes, has a way 

 sometimes of getting too much for one if due care is not 

 exercised ; there are certain pieces, easily recognized, that 

 are very "fat," that is, they contain a larger proportion 

 than usual of turpentine, and so ignite readily and burn 

 fiercely. Being more used to anthracite coal than to pine 

 wood, we did not realize this fact, neither did we notice 

 that our supply of wood was of this fat description; so 

 we piled it in the stove, and by-and-by the heat drove us 

 further oft'; then, looking up, we saw the stove-pipe as- 

 suming a glowing hue close to the ceiling where it entered 

 the brick flue ; next we saw something more, to our horror, 

 smoke and flames beginning to curl up from the ceiling 

 around the pipe. Once a yellow-pine house takes fire 

 there is no saving it, there are no hose carriages or fire 

 engines to be summoned, and the wood burns fiercely 

 and irresistibly. The sight of those creeping flames scared 

 the chill blood away : one ran for a ladder to reach the 

 trap that had been made in the ceiling to meet just such 

 occasions as this, another scrambled like a cat up the 

 partition, on a clothes-horse, plunged through the open 

 trap, and dashed a pail of water around the blazing pipe- 

 hole. Those below got a fine steam bath, and the one 

 above came down looking like a chimney-sweep all over 

 soot and cobwebs ; but no one regarded appearances just 

 then, the threatening calamity v/as averted, the fire was 

 put out, and the immigrants were saved from being made 



