How
small it looked now; why, it was scarcely too large for herself! And how
much Cloudy had outgrown it! It had fitted him nicely at sixteen, now he
was twenty-one, and in two years more he would be home again! Smiling to
herself, and tossing her charming head, as at some invisible foe, she
said:
"Yes, indeed. I should so like to see them marry me to that ogre Grim!"
She pressed the cloth up to her face, and put it away, and, still
smiling to herself, retired to rest, to dream of her dear playmate.
She dreamed of being in his ship on the open sea, the scene idealized to
supernatural beauty and sublimity, as all such scenes are in dreams; and
then she thought the ship took fire, and she saw, and heard, and felt
the great panic and horror that ensued.
She woke in a terrible fright. A part of her dream was true! Her
chamber was filled with smoke, and the house was chaotic with noise
and confusion, and resounded with cries of "Fire! Fire!" everywhere.
What happened next passed with the swiftness of lightning. She jumped
out of bed, seized a woolen shawl, and wrapped it around her head, and
even in that imminent danger not forgetting her most cherished
treasure--Cloudy's suit of uniform--snatched it from the wardrobe and
fled out of the room.
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