TRL1L BY FIRE
19
"I am going
to
the other side of the river
to
eat grass and
grow fat," said the First Goat Billy. That day while they were
reading the fire bell clanged through the school-house. About
once every school year there was a fire drill and the bell clanged
upstairs and down. The teachers, smiling knowingly and una–
fraid, gave the order for the children to stand up and they
marched out in orderly rows, unhurried, as they did for recess.
That day when the clanging bell interrupted the story of the
Three Goats Billy a surprised look appeared on the teacher's
face, but it changed immediately
to
the smile as if she were
laughing inwardly at a secret joke, and she gave the order for
them to rise. As they stood beside their desks the door opend
as if a hard wind had blown it in. Someone hissed excitedly
to
the teacher, "Fire
I
Fire
I"
and ran on.
Dubie's teacher said, "Marchi"
In the hall, along one whole side of the buil<1mg lllere were
flames. The sound of crackling wood and flames hissing and
gasping for joy, or it seemed joy, the smell of burning rotten
wood,-these things were in the hall. The flames were like a
mid-summer sun that had come too near and broken up into a
hundred licking rays. They licked up the banisters of the wide
stairs so that the children on the first floor, marching out, pressed
against the outer wall that was still intact and cool. The teach–
ers said, "Left, right,-left, right," quickly, hurriedly, marking
time with fingers that trembled.
Dubie marched with the other small black and brown chil–
dren of his class hugging the wall, making his feet stamp, his
eyes wide and white like theirs staring toward the white space
down the long hall which was a door into the air outside.
The teacher halted them to wait until two classes, pressed
four abreast, squeezed through the door. When they stopped
Dubie remembered Clissy as if someone had called out her name
in a loud voice. He looked toward the upper floor. While he
looked a long shriek split through the sound of the flames. The
teacher said, "March
I
March!" in a high piercing voice. Pressed
.tgainst the wall, Dubie stared up toward the place from which
the first cry and others like it came. The fire licked greedily
up the stairs consuming the wood. The other children marched
past Dubie who was flat against the wall, almost a part of it.
He was staring at the children from the class-rooms upstairs
who were half way down the stairs just on the other side of the
flames. He could see their black faces and staring white eyes.
