When the man at the top got the pipe up opposite to the window, he pointed it in, and then Rollo could see him looking down, and gesticulating very violently to those below. He seemed to be calling out to them; but there was so much noise that Rollo could not hear what he said. However, presently the man turned around towards the building again, and seemed to be attending to his pipe, and Rollo could see that the water was spouting through it very furiously into the building.
By this time, the fire had been so much deadened, by the various jets of water which had been poured upon it from all sides, that the flames no longer ascended above the roof, but, instead of flame, there was a tall column of dense white smoke, illuminated by the embers which still glowed below. Rollo and Jonas remained nearly half an hour, watching the progress of the extinguishing of the fire; and then, as Rollo began to feel his seat somewhat uncomfortable, they returned together to the hotel. Rollo said he wondered that the other buildings did not take fire; but Jonas told him that bricks were a pretty good non-conductor of heat, and that, if the walls which divided such a block were of proper thickness, one store was often burned out of the block, without setting fire to the adjoining buildings.
Under what circumstances did Rollo first hear the alarm of fire? What did he observe in the street when he looked out the window? What is a reservoir? How was the water conveyed from the reservoir to the vicinity of the fire? Describe the successive steps of the process by which the fire was extinguished. What did Jonas say in regard to the reason why the fire was not communicated to the other buildings of the block?
When Rollo and Jonas reached home the next day, Rollo gave Dorothy an account of the conflagration which they had witnessed in the city.
Dorothy did not appear quite so much interested in his narrative as Rollo had expected. There are, in fact, a great many scenes which it is very interesting to witness, but which it is very uninteresting to hear described. This is a distinction which a great many travellers, older and more experienced than Rollo, are apt to forget. Or rather it is one that they do not understand at all. They attempt to describe to their friends scenes of grandeur or sublimity which impressed their minds very strongly when they witnessed them, and are surprised to find that they cannot make a similar impression upon others by means of the description.