The house was old, built for the most part of wood, and there seemed little hope for it.
Ellen and the other women went round to the front of the house, and stood there, dismal figures in their scanty raiment, with woollen petticoats pinned across their shoulders, and disordered hair blown about their faces by the damp wind.

They stood grouped together in utter helplessness, looking at the work of ruin with a half-stupid air; almost like the animals who had been hustled from one place of shelter to another, and were evidently lost in wonder as to the cause of their removal.
But presently, as the awful scene before them grew more familiar, the instincts of self-interest arose in each breast.

Mrs.Tadman piteously bewailed the loss of her entire wardrobe, and some mysterious pocket-book which she described plaintively as her "little all." She dwelt dolefully upon the merits of each particular article, most especially upon a French-merino dress she had bought for Stephen's wedding, which would have lasted her a lifetime, and a Paisley shawl, the gift of her deceased husband, which had been in her possession twenty years, and had not so much as a thin place in it.
Nor was the disconsolate matron the only one who lamented her losses.
Sarah Batts, with clasped hands and distracted aspect, wept for the destruction of her "box." "There was money in it," she cried, "money! Oh, don't you think the men could get to my room and save it ?" "Money!" exclaimed Mrs.Tadman, sharply, aroused from the contemplation of her own woes by this avowal; "you must be cleverer than I took you for, Sarah Batts, to be able to save money, and yet be always bedizened with some new bit of finery, as you've been." "It was give to me," Sarah answered indignantly, "by them as had a right to give it." "For no good, I should think," replied Mrs.Tadman; "what should anybody give you money for ?" "Never you mind; it was mine.

O dear, O dear! if one of the men would only get my box for me." She ran to intercept one of the farm-labourers, armed with his bucket, and tried to bribe him by the promise of five shillings as a reward for the rescue of her treasures.

But the man only threatened to heave the bucket of water at her if she got in his way; and Miss Batts was obliged to abandon this hope.
The fire made rapid progress meanwhile, unchecked by that ineffectual splashing of water.