A HEROINE.

Evening Star, Issue 3630, 10 October 1874, Page 3

A HEROINE.

My heroine (I fancy she would have been surprised to hear herself so described) was a short, stout, unprepossessing Irish woman ; ignorant, uneducated, but having strong maternal love. One evening she had to leave her five little ones in the hut while she went in search of an errant cow. When at some distance from her home she saw a sudden glare. A second look sent the dread certainty to her heart that the hut, with all her children locked in, was on fire. The most direct way of reaching the blazing cot necessitated crossing several fences. Mrs Donohue was not given to acrobatic feats, but I doubt if the most practised gymnast could have cleared the fences quicker. How she reached the hut she never but she did j she heard the imprisoned and terrified children screaming as she approached. She turned the key to find all the front part of the place in a blaze. She Mashed through and picked up two of the youngest and most helpless of her children, and wrapping them in a blanket she again tore through the flames. She returned aud rescued two more in the same way, trying vainly to encourage the eldest to run with her. But the smoke and fear had stupified the child, and it refused to stir. Consequently she had to make a third journey, only to find return by the door impracticable. With the strength and courage of despair, she broke out the little window, dropped the child through, and got out herself just as the roof fell in. Her hair was all burnt off, her eyes injured, and her Htrong loving arms rendered helpless for weeks; but she had saved her children, and apparently had no idea that she had done anything worthy of praise or record. Will it be believed, however, that her husband had also been approaching the hut from another direction, and had been helplessly carrying up.a very tiny bucket of water from the creek ? And Bridget Donohue, I am proud to say, is but one of the many obscure heroines. “ Gossiper ” in the ‘ Australasian.’