That prayer was answered.  After the colored boy was found wanting, an animal was used as God’s messenger.  The fire awakened Duke.  The air all around him was full of smoke that almost choked him.  He realized there was danger, but he thought more of another that he loved than of his own safety.  With a bound, he sprang through the open doorway barking wildly.  He leaped up on the bed where the children slept.  He had no words in which to warn them of danger, but the ways of God are above those of men, and weak instruments prove strong in His hands.

Julia and Beth wakened at the same instant.

“What is it, Duke?” cried Beth only half awake, for the dog was pulling wildly at her night-dress.  The smoke answered her question.  Both of the girls knew that Duke was warning them that the house was on fire.  They jumped out of bed, and ran to the door.  The fire now was fast breaking into the house.

“What shall we do?” gasped Beth at sight of the smoke and flames circling around the stairs at the end of the hall.

“We can climb down the piazza,” answered Julia turning towards it.  Beth started to follow her, but a thought stopped her.

“If we go that way Maggie’ll burn.  I must try to warn her.”

“But we’ll choke to death,” cried Julia, carried away for a moment by the terror fire has for the bravest.

“I can’t help it.  I can’t let Maggie burn.  You can climb down the piazza, but I’m going to try to reach Maggie,” answered Beth, going towards the hall, with Duke at her heels.

It was a terrible temptation to Julia to take Beth at her words.  She feared that Death waited in the hall.  The thought made Julia shiver notwithstanding the sickening heat that was beginning to fill the house.  Her face blanched, but it was no whiter than that of Beth, who felt fully as strongly as Julia the danger she ran in trying to save Maggie.

“Let’s wrap ourselves in blankets,” cried Julia seizing two from the bed, and throwing one to Beth.  She had conquered her fear sufficiently to make a supreme effort to save Maggie.  She was too brave to let Beth outshine her in daring.

“Maggie, Maggie, wake,” yelled Beth, wrapping the blanket around her and rushing out into the smoke and fire towards the room where Maggie slept.

“Fire, fire, fire,” screamed Julia, the smoke half choking her.

Their cries wakened Maggie.  She jumped out of bed, and rushed out into the hall.

“Oh, de good Lo’d,” she moaned, trembling all over in sudden horror; “dis house is burnin’, an’ we’ll die.”  Then she saw the two girls.  Their danger calmed her fears.

“No, we won’t die, honeys,” she cried more calmly.  “We kin get down de stairs, I know.  Come on, my honeys.  I won’t leave yo’.  We’ll jes’ keep our mouths shut, an’ we’ll be all right.”

She, too, seized a blanket to protect herself from the fire.