The

The Welcome back everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales. This is your host, John Haggardorn. Frank Stockton has given us a lot of

great stories and a lot of great humor, and the reversible landscape is no exception. Hope you

enjoy it. To look at me, no one would suppose it, but it is nevertheless a fact that I am a

member of a fire company.

I am somewhat middle-aged, somewhat stout, and, at certain times of the year, somewhat stiff in the joints.

And my general dress and demeanor, that of a sober businessman, would not at all suggest the active and impetuous firemen of the period.

I do not belong to any paid department, but to a volunteer hook and ladder company,

composed of the active-bodied or active-minded male citizens of the country town where I live.

I am included in the active-minded portion of the company, and in an organization like ours,

which is not only intended to assist in putting out the fires of burning buildings,

but to light the torch of the mind.

This sort of member is very valuable.

In the building which we occupy, our truck, with its hooks and ladders,

stands upon the lower floor,

while the large room above is used as a club and reading room.

At the beginning of our first winter of our occupancy of the building, we found that this room, which had been very pleasant in the summer, was extremely uncomfortable in winter.

The long apartment had been originally intended for purposes of storage, and although we had

ornamented it and fitted it up very neatly, a good deal of carpentry and some mason's work was

necessary before it could be made tight and draft-proof for cold weather.

But lately we had spent money very freely, and our treasury was

absolutely empty. I was chairman of the committee which had charge of everything pertaining to our

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