She slides a chair in front of the bureau drawers and stretches forward. Oil spills onto her hand as she drags the lamp closer, but she is careful and it stays upright. She wipes her fingers on her nightdress and checks the top drawer of the bureau for the box of kitchen matches kept there. Finding them, she lifts the glass globe with the wire and strikes a match against the brick set on the bureau for this purpose. She has seen her parents do this a hundred times, and Honora as well.
Proud of herself, she lights the wick, lowers the globe, and blows out the match. Now she has only to take the lamp closer to Honora.
But something is not right. She pushes the lamp back and bats at a ring of fire still burning on the bureau. As she does, a flame ignites on her wrist. She screams out in real pain and terror, and rubs her hand against her nightgown. When the flames ignite there as well, she panics and tumbles off the chair, rolling onto the floorboards. As the chair knocks against the bureau, the lantern tips and shatters on the floor. Quicker than the hare in the meadow, fire jumps forward and the bedclothes near Honora ignite.
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