Invisible Helpers

The mother of the child, it seems, was a friend or relative of the landlady of the house and had left the little creature in her charge for the night because she was herself obliged to go down to Colchester on business. It was not until everyone else had been rescued and the whole house was wrapped in flame that the landlady remembered with a terrible pang the trust that had been confided to her. It seemed hopeless then to attempt to reach the garret where the child had been put to bed, but one of the firemen heroically resolved to make the desperate effort. After receiving precise directions as to the exact location of the room, he plunged in among the smoke and flame.

He found the child and brought him out entirely unharmed; but when he rejoined his comrades, he had a very singular story to tell. He declared that when he reached the room, he found it in flames, and most of the floor had already fallen. However, the fire had curved around the room toward the window in an unnatural and unaccountable manner, the like of which he had never seen before in all his experience, so that the corner in which the child lay was wholly untouched, although the very rafters of the section of floor on which his little crib stood were half burnt away.