She stood quite still.

I suppose that she was paralysed with fear; and the ladies who were near screamed very loud, but did nothing.
Then some impulse seized me--perhaps instinct would be a better word to use, considering my age.

I threw myself upon the child, and, beating at the fire with my hands, mercifully succeeded in extinguishing it before it really got hold.

My wrists were so badly scorched that they had to be wrapped up in wool for a long time afterwards, but with the exception of a single burn upon her throat, little Stella Carson was not much hurt.
This is all that I remember about the Christmas-tree at the Hall.
What happened afterwards is lost to me, but to this day in my sleep I sometimes see little Stella's sweet face and the stare of terror in her dark eyes as the fire ran up her arm.

This, however, is not wonderful, for I had, humanly speaking, saved the life of her who was destined to be my wife.
The next event which I can recall clearly is that my mother and three brothers all fell ill of fever, owing, as I afterwards learned, to the poisoning of our well by some evil-minded person, who threw a dead sheep into it.
It must have been while they were ill that Squire Carson came one day to the vicarage.