“It was icy that afternoon, you know how it had thawed in the morning and then turned cold, and I was real nervous about slipping. I’m not so steady on my feet as I was fifty years ago and when I saw Mrs. Knapp putting on her things to leave the Guild meeting I said to her, ‘Mrs. Knapp,’ I said, ‘won’t you let me go along with you and take your arm over the icy places? I’m real nervous about slipping,’ I said. And she said, ‘Yes, of course,’ and we started out and I felt so relieved to have her to hold to. She’s the kind you couldn’t imagine slipping, you know, the kind you’d _want_ to take her arm over hard places. She’s a wonderful woman, Mrs. Knapp is. I always said so even before all this happened. There’s nothing she can’t do. You ought to see the parlor furniture she recovered with her own hands, as good as any upholsterer you ever saw. And then didn’t her Henry pester her to let him have a dog, and a _white_ dog at that! Of course she didn’t let him--you know how a white dog’s hairs will show. When I was a girl I remember my Aunt Esther had a white dog--but I was telling you about how we first saw the fire. We had just turned the corner by Wertheimer’s and I was looking down to pick my way, and Mrs. Knapp said, ‘Good gracious, Mrs. Anderson, what’s that on your roof?’ I looked quick but I couldn’t see anything, and she said, ‘It looks like a--oh, yes, I see, a flame right by your chimney.’ “And then I knew it must be so, for that end chimney of mine had had a crack in it for ever so long, and I’d tried and _tried_ to get a mason to come, but you know how they hate a little tinkering repair job, and anyhow for a _woman_! Well, Mrs. Knapp she started on a run for her house to telephone the fire department and I scuffled along as fast as I could for fear of slipping. I wasn’t anywhere near my front walk yet when Mr. Knapp came running out from their house, bareheaded in all that cold with a pail in each hand. He could see me coming along slow and he hollered to me, ‘Where’s your long ladder, Mrs. Anderson?’ And I hollered back, ‘It’s hung up under the eaves of the barn, but don’t you go trying to climb up that steep icy roof, Mr. Knapp! You’ll break your neck if you do!’ I said to him just as I’m saying to you. I did my _best_ to keep him from it! I feel bad enough without that. And I give you my word I hollered to him just as I told you, ‘Don’t you go trying to climb up that steep icy roof, Mr. Knapp. You’ll break your neck if you do!’ I said.