The Fire Last Night
FLETA FORRESTER
Ding! dong!
Ping! dong!
The alarm Hashed over the wire:
The quick horses sprang
To their places, and—clang!
The steamers rolled off to the fire.
Fire! fire!
Fire! fire!
The heavens grew red with its light;
The sparks sifted down
O’er the slumbering town,
Asleep in the dead of the night.
Bright I light I
Bright! light 1
The people they waked; they came
And some of them thought
That the world had caught,
When they saw that leaping flame.
nissl hiss!
Hiss I hiss I
The steamers they all worked hard
Till the flames grew slim,
And the sky grew dim,
As the fire and the water warred.
Ding I dong I
Ding! dong!
Came at lost the signal toll,
And the people said,
By their change in tread,
“ The fire is now under control 1”
Out! out I
A nd they wheeled about;
The last faint gleam was dead ;
And from smoke and damp;
With a hurrying tramp,
The world roiled back to bed.
Companion.
