"The dear, precious lambs! - Oh! such a death!"
I threw myself down upon the floor beside them, and pressed them
alternately to my heart, while inwardly I thanked God that they were
asleep, unconscious of danger, and unable by their childish cries to
distract our attention from adopting any plan which might offer to
effect their escape.
The heat soon became suffocating. We were parched with thirst, and
there was not a drop of water in the house, and none to be procured
nearer than the lake. I turned once more to the door, hoping that a
passage might have been burnt through to the water. I saw nothing
but a dense cloud of fire and smoke - could hear nothing but the
crackling and roaring of the flames, which were gaining so fast
upon us that I felt their scorching breath in my face.
"Ah," thought I - and it was a most bitter thought - "what will my
beloved husband say when he returns and finds that his poor Susy and
his dear girls have perished in this miserable manner? But God can
save us yet."
The thought had scarcely found a voice in my heart before the wind
rose to a hurricane, scattering the flames on all sides into a
tempest of burning billows. I buried my head in my apron, for I
thought that our time was come, and that all was lost, when a most
terrific crash of thunder burst over our heads, and, like the
breaking of a water-spout, down came the rushing torrent of rain
which had been pent up for so many weeks.
In a few minutes the chip-yard was all afloat, and the fire
effectually checked. The storm which, unnoticed by us, had been
gathering all day, and which was the only one of any note we had
that summer, continued to rage all night, and before morning had
quite subdued the cruel enemy, whose approach we had viewed with
such dread.
The imminent danger in which we had been placed struck me more
forcibly after it was past than at the time, and both the girl
and myself sank upon our knees, and lifted up our hearts in humble
thanksgiving to that God who had saved us by an act of His
Providence from an awful and sudden death. When all hope from
human assistance was lost, His hand was mercifully stretched forth,
making His strength more perfectly manifested in our weakness: -
"He is their stay when earthly help is lost,
The light and anchor of the tempest-toss'd."
There was one person unknown to us, who had watched the progress
of that rash blaze, and had even brought his canoe to the landing,
in the hope of us getting off. This was an Irish pensioner named
Dunn, who had cleared a few acres on his government grant, and had
built a shanty on the opposite shore of the lake.
