The Young Firemen of Lakeville | Page 8

accomplished.
"Got to let her burn now," said the constable. "How'd it start, Mr.
Stimson?"
"Tramps must have sot it, I guess. Fust I knowed I woke up, an' see th'
blaze. Then I sent my boy Tom out to yell."
"Yes, I heard him," replied the constable. "He yelled good and proper. I
got right after the bucket brigade." "That's what you did."
"Well, the bucket brigade might as well have stayed in bed for all the
good it did," remarked Cole Bishop, who had recovered his usual
calmness. "You'd ought to had a couple of force-pumps like mine."
"Oh, you boys clear out," advised the constable. "First thing you know
you'll git hurt."
"Huh! I guess if it hadn't been for some of us boys, there'd be a bigger
loss than there is," retorted Cole.
"That's so," agreed Mr. Stimson. "Bert and Vincent saved me several
hundred dollars by getting out them horses."
"Any of 'em hurt?"
"The bay mare's a little lame, from jumpin', an' the roan gelding is
scratched on the fore quarter. But, land! that's nothin'. They'll be all
right in a day or two."
"Pretty heavy loss, ain't it, neighbor Stimson?" asked Mr. Peter
Appelby, who lived next to the man whose barn was now but a mass of
glowing embers.
"Yes, 'tis, but I got insurance. I'm glad it wasn't the house."
"Guess you kin be. Land! but it did go quick! I never see such a fierce
fire. I sure thought them two boys would be burned to death," remarked

Nate Jackford, another neighbor.
"So did I," admitted Mr. Stimson. "It's been a terrible night."
"But it might have been worse."
"That's so."
There was nothing more that could be done. The horses and cows were
taken in charge by several neighbors, who agreed to keep them until Mr.
Stimson could build a temporary barn. Then, as there was little more to
see, for the barn was now completely consumed, the crowd began
dispersing.
"Lakeville ought to have a fire department," said Bert, as he walked
home with his chums.
"Yep. They need some force-pumps like mine," agreed Cole. "I got a
hose rigged up on it, an' if our house got afire, I could put it out as easy
as pie."
"Yes, it's a good pump of yours," admitted Vincent, "but what we need
here is a regular pumping engine, and some lines of hose. If we'd had
'em to-night we might have saved the barn."
"The Selectmen of Lakeville are too stingy to appropriate any money
for a fire department," said Bert. "I remember once, years ago, when
my father was alive, he proposed it, but nothing ever came of it."
"This is a miserly town, anyhow," added Cole. "They never have any
Fourth of July celebration."
"That's right," agreed his chums.
Little was talked of in the village the next day but the fire at the barn.
Bert and Vincent were praised on all sides, and when Bert appeared in
the streets, with one hand bandaged up, where it had been slightly
burned, he was congratulated by nearly every one who met him, until
he blushed like a girl.

"If Constable Stickler had given the alarm a little earlier, so's the bucket
brigade could have got there quicker, we could have saved the barn,"
said Moses Sagger, the owner of the only butcher shop in town. He was
a member of the brigade.
"That bucket brigade could never have put out that fire, Moses," said
Peter Appelby. "There wasn't water enough."
"Yes, there was. Didn't we put out the fire at Sim Rockford's, one day,
about two years ago?"
"Yes, but that was only his henhouse, when his wife put a charcoal fire
in it to keep the hens warm so's they'd lay more. That wasn't much of a
blaze. Besides, it was in the daytime, and we had the brook to get water
from."
"Well, the bucket brigade's good enough for Lakeville," declared the
butcher. "What's the use of talking? I've seen it do good work."
"Well, maybe once in a while. But it can't handle a big fire. We need a
regular department, that's what we do."
"What, and increase the taxes to pay for it? I guess not much!"
exclaimed Mr. Sagger. "I pay too high taxes now. The bucket brigade is
good enough."
"That's the kind of men that keeps Lakeville from growing," thought
Mr. Appelby, as he walked off. "He's too miserly to want to pay a few
dollars extra each year to support a regular fire department. But we'll
have to have one some day."
That day was nearer than Mr. Appelby supposed.

CHAPTER IV
BERT HAS A PLAN

Lakeville was a typical New England village. It was of fair size, and
was located on