The Youth's Companion/July 19, 1860/A Brave Boy

A Brave Boy.

A six-story building, in which were nearly one hundred human beings, was burned down one night lately in New York. Several perished. On the sixth floor of the burning house was a family by the name of Parrott—seven persons, the father, mother, and five children. The father, who is a cripple, was away at his shop in Grand street, when the fire occurred. The eldest child, a boy of fourteen, had taken off his coat and shoes, and was studying his lessons for school when the alarm was given. Opening the door he saw that the stairs were already impassable; and, returning to the room, he opened the window and leaped to the roof of the house adjacent, a two-story building, with a sharp pitched roof. Being in his stocking-feet, and the roof wet with freezing water, he was able to retain his footing, and called to his mother to toss him the children. The next oldest girl, of ten or twelve, was let down, but came near falling between the buildings, there being a space of a foot or more. The boy seized her by the hair, and dragged her on to the roof by his side, and then successfully caught the younger children. The mother attempted to let down the baby in a sheet, but the baby rolled out, and fell upon the snow on the roof, whence the boy caught it up uninjured, and placed it in charge of one of the other children.

“Now, mother,” said he, “you must jump.”

The mother sprang from the window; but her weight, and having on shoes, carried her over the gutter, and she would have been dashed to pieces on the ice below, had not the heroic boy, bracing himself as he best could, caught her dress, and clung to her till she could place herself upon the roof. The whole family then made their way to the scuttle on the roof, through which they descended in safety, to be greeted by the poor father who was below, almost distracted with the fear that they were perishing in the flames.