"Well, it was rather a rum thing. We heard the Garrick was on fire and, of course, we went straight there," said father, briskly. "We couldn't find you, of course--and we couldn't get in--but the firemen told us everyone was safely out. And then I heard a voice at my ear say, 'Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane'--and something touched me on the shoulder. It was a great yellow pigeon, and it got in the way of my seeing who'd spoken. It fluttered off, and then someone said in the other ear, 'They're safe at home'; and when I turned again, to see who it was speaking, hanged if there wasn't that confounded pigeon on my other shoulder. Dazed by the fire, I suppose. Your mother said it was the voice of----" [Illustration: "IT WAS A GREAT YELLOW PIGEON."] "I said it was the bird that spoke," said mother, "and so it was. Or at least I thought so then. It wasn't a pigeon. It was an orange-coloured cockatoo. I don't care who it was that spoke. It was true--and you're safe." Mother began to cry again, and father said bed was a good place after the pleasures of the stage. So everyone went there. Robert had a talk to the Phoenix that night. "Oh, very well," said the bird, when Robert had said what he felt, "didn't you know that I had power over fire? Do not distress yourself. I, like my high priests in Lombard Street, can undo the work of flames. Kindly open the casement." It flew out. That was why the papers said, next day, that the fire at the theatre had done less damage than had been anticipated. As a matter of fact, it had done none, for the Phoenix spent the night in putting things straight. How the management accounted for this, and how many of the theatre officials still believe that they were mad on that night, will never be known. Next day mother saw the burnt holes in the carpet. "It caught where it was paraffiny," said Anthea. "I must get rid of that carpet at once," said mother. But what the children said in sad whispers to each other, as they pondered over last night's events, was:-- "We must get rid of that Phoenix." [Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS--THE POINT MARKED X SHOWS THE SPOT REACHED BY GUIDE BARLOW AND SUPERINTENDENT PERRY. _From a Photo._] _Walking on the Brink of Niagara._ BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP.