“DON’T YOU SMELL FIRE?”

UN!—run for St. Clement’s engine! For the Pawnbroker’s all in a blaze, And the pledges are frying and singing— Oh! how the poor pawners will craze! Now where can the turncock be drinking? Was there ever so thirsty an elf?— But he still may tope on, for I’m thinking That the plugs are as dry as himself.

The engines!—I hear them come rumbling; There’s the Phœnix! the Globe! and the Sun! What a row there will be, and a grumbling When the water don’t start for a run! See! there they come racing and tearing, All the street with loud voices is fill’d; Oh! its only the firemen a-swearing At a man they’ve run over and kill’d!

How sweetly the sparks fly away now, And twinkle like stars in the sky; It’s a wonder the engines don’t play now, But I never saw water so shy! Why there isn’t enough for a snipe, And the fire is fiercer, alas! Oh! instead of the New River pipe, They have gone—that they have—to the gas!

Only look at the poor little P——’s On the roof—is there anything sadder? My dears, keep fast hold, if you please, And they won’t be an hour with the ladder! But if any one’s hot in their feet, And in very great haste to be saved, Here’s a nice easy bit in the street, That M‘Adam has lately unpaved!

There is some one—I see a dark shape At that window, the hottest of all,— My good woman, why don’t you escape? Never think of your bonnet and shawl: If your dress isn’t perfect, what is it For once in a way to your hurt? When your husband is paying a visit There, at Number Fourteen, in his shirt!

Only see how she throws out her chaney! Her basons, and teapots, and all The most brittle of her goods—or any, But they all break in breaking their fall: Such things are not surely the best From a two-story window to throw— She might save a good iron-bound chest, For there’s plenty of people below!

O dear! what a beautiful flash! How it shone thro’ the window and door; We shall soon hear a scream and a crash, When the woman falls thro’ with the floor! There! there! what a volley of flame, And then suddenly all is obscured!— Well—I’m glad in my heart that I came;— But I hope the poor man is insured!