"
And he ran upstairs, for the engines were beginning to play upon
the roof.
Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs again hurriedly; there was more
necessity for summoning Mr. Peterkin home.
"Write a telegram to your father," she said to Elizabeth Eliza, "to
'come home directly.'"
"That will take but three words," said Elizabeth Eliza, with
presence of mind, "and we need ten. I was just trying to make
them out."
"What has come now?" exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, and they hurried
again to the window, to see a row of carriages coming down the
street.
"I must have touched the carriage-knob," cried Mrs. Peterkin, "and
I pushed it half-a-dozen times I felt so anxious!"
Six hacks stood before the door. All the village boys were
assembling. Even their own little boys had returned from school,
and were showing the firemen the way to the well.
Again Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs, and a fearful sound
arose. She had touched the burglar-alarm !
The former owner of the house, who had a great fear of burglars,
had invented a machine of his own, which he had connected with
a knob. A wire attached to the knob moved a spring that could put
in motion a number of watchmen's rattles, hidden under the eaves
of the piazza.
All these were now set a-going, and their terrible din roused those
of the neighborhood who had not before assembled around the
house. At this moment Elizabeth Eliza met the chief engineer.
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