Professor Johnny

AN ACCIDENTAL EXPERIMENT.

Johnny had been named The Professor by some of his young friends, because he wore spectacles, was fond of studying natural philosophy and chemistry, and of performing experiments. He had become so used to the name that he did not mind it much, even when some of the rude boys in the street called him Professor or Prof. His merry little sister Sue, also, was quite as apt to call him Prof. as Johnny.

One evening in June, Johnny and Sue were at home alone. Their father and mother were making calls; and Kate, the girl, had gone out marketing. It was not very uncommon for them to be in the house alone; for although Sue was rather wild and thoughtless, Johnny was very quiet and thoughtful, and Sue had been taught to mind him when her parents were away.

Johnny had been reading, and Sue amusing herself by undressing her doll and putting it to bed; but after the doll was in bed, and supposedly sound asleep, she could not think of any thing else to do by herself, and so began to tease Johnny to put up his book and play with her. Johnny was so much interested in his book that he paid but little attention to her at first, merely replying that he would play by and by. But finally Sue took hold of his book playfully, saying,--

"I mean to take away your book, for you have read long enough: mamma would say so herself if she were here."

Johnny laughed.

"That's a very handy excuse for you: whenever you want me to play, you have a sudden anxiety about my eyes."

"But you know it's just what papa and mamma say, that you read too much, and they ask you to stop reading a good deal oftener than I do. I'm sure, if they had been here, you would have had to put up that book half an hour ago."

"I shouldn't wonder if you were right about that. Well, what shall we do? Shall we play checkers?"

"Oh, no! don't let's play any thing still: let's romp a little."

"Romp!" exclaimed Johnny, making up a comical face. "You know I hate romping. Let us play a game of chess."

"No: you always beat me at those games, and so it isn't any fun; but I can beat you at romping, and so I like it. Besides, papa and mamma say it is better for you to exercise more, and they like to have you romp with me."

"I should think you were setting up for a doctress, if I didn't know you better. You are the greatest girl to get up excuses for whatever you want to do. But I suppose there'll be no peace until I romp."

Johnny put down his book with a sigh and a smile. Sue said, "Come, let's play tag. Catch me if you can!" and ran off into the dining-room. As the gas was only lighted in the front hall and in the sitting-room, it was pretty dark in the dining-room; but this suited Sue all the better: she ran around the table, with Johnny after her; and, as she hit now and then against the table, the dishes rattled ominously. She was laughing uproariously all the time, and evidently thought of nothing but the sport of dodging Johnny, at all risks.

"This won't do," said Johnny, coming to a stand-still, as Sue, in trying to escape him as he turned suddenly in the direction in which she was running, knocked over a pitcher near the end of the table: "we shall be sure to break something before long, at this rate."

"Let's go into the kitchen, then," replied Sue: "there isn't any fire in the stove, and we can't hurt any thing there. It'll be real nice and dark too: I'll bet I can hide where you can't find me."

"All right," said Johnny; and Sue danced into the kitchen, and hid behind the door. Johnny cornered her at once, however; for it happened to be lighter there than in the dining-room.

"Why, this is real queer!" exclaimed Sue, in a half vexed tone, as Johnny pulled her from her hiding-place: "it isn't dark here a single mite!"

"So it isn't," replied Johnny. "I wonder what makes it so light! The light comes in at the window. There must be a lamp in the shed, or out on the platform."

Johnny opened the door and went out. Sue followed him. The "platform" extended some little distance from the back-door, and was covered by a roof: it might have been called a piazza or a porch but for its width. At the side of the "platform" was what Johnny called the "shed:" it had been intended only for storage of wood and coal, but was so large that a small summer kitchen had been partitioned off next to the kitchen, with a door into the kitchen, and another opening upon the platform. This kitchen was used in warm weather for baking, washing, and ironing, in order to keep the heat out of the house. Kate had been ironing that afternoon, and the fire in the stove had not gone out.

As soon as they were outside the door, Sue set up a cry of alarm.

"Fire! Fire!" she cried. "The house is on fire! O Johnny, let's run off! we shall get burned up!"

Johnny stood quite still, and said nothing.

"O Johnny! come! come! what makes you stand there? It's going to explode! It'll reach over here, and set the house on fire! Let's run out into the street, and call some one to come! What makes you stand there, and not call out? You'll let the house burn up! But I shan't go and let you be burned up: you've got to come too!"

She took hold of his jacket, and pulled with all her might; for she thought Johnny was too frightened to stir.

"Keep still, Sue: I'm thinking," he replied, looking calmly and fixedly at the alarming light in the shed-window. "I can't get at it through this door very well: I guess I'll go around through the kitchen-door."

"You ain't going near it?" cried Sue, in astonishment and alarm.

"Of course I am: I can't put it out without going near it."

"You sha'n't do it! There! It's getting worse than ever! O Johnny, come in!--It's going to explode this minute!"

Johnny came in, but it was not on account of Sue's direction: he had just thought what to do.

The danger proceeded from a kerosene-lamp which stood in the summer kitchen, on a table, near the window facing the platform. It was streaming up very high, and blazing in a very remarkable and peculiar manner, as if on the point of instant explosion: the flashing and flickering were what had lighted up the kitchen so strangely.

On entering the kitchen, Johnny seized a piece of carpet which was in front of the sink, and ran with it toward the inner door of the shed.

"You sha'n't go in there, Johnny!" cried Sue. "You're going to kill yourself, and me, too, 'cause I sha'n't run away and leave you;" and she began to cry bitterly. But Johnny hurried on into the shed, and Sue dared not follow him: she was only just brave enough not to run out of the house, and leave him there to die or be horribly burned alone.

Just then Kate returned. As she stepped upon the platform, and saw the alarming spectacle, she screamed wildly, "Fire! help! help!" Just at that moment, too, a boy in the neighborhood, who had heard Sue's cries, came rushing into the yard. Hearing Kate's outcry, and seeing the blaze in the shed, he rushed into the street, shouting "Fire!" at the top of his voice, and telling everybody he met that the back part of Mr. Le Bras' house was all in a blaze. The first man who heard the news gave the signal at the alarm-box at the corner.

But before Kate or Sue could scream again, Johnny had darted through the inner door, and thrown the rug over the lamp.

"O Johnny! Johnny! run! run! it'll explode now, sure!" cried Kate wildly, thinking the carpet would send the blaze down into the lamp instantly. But all was in darkness.

"Johnny! Oh! where is he?" screamed Sue, almost fancying he must have died with the blaze somehow.

"Sure, and there ain't any fire now at all!" said Kate, in wonderment. "Where are you, Johnny?"

"Here I am," said a calm voice at her elbow. "Didn't that go out quickly? I knew it would as soon as the rug was over it, but I was a little afraid it might explode before I could get it covered: I didn't really believe it would, though; for father says he is always very careful to get the best of kerosene."

"What a brave boy!" said Kate admiringly. "But you oughtn't to have risked your life so, Johnny. And what could have ailed that lamp? I'll light a candle, and go and see what the matter was; for I don't dare touch another kerosene-lamp. I left that one all right when I went off, about an hour and a half ago."