WARM WORK. 225 



river to wash some clothes, and we remained behind 

 with Mr. O'B. The " bull-dogs'' were very numerous, 

 and we built a large fire, for the benefit of the horses, 

 in the little open space we had cleared. We then 

 proceeded to make a smaller one for ourselves, and 

 were quietly seated round it cooking our pemmican, 

 Mr. O'B. having divested his feet of his boots, lying 

 at his ease, and smoking his pipe with great satis- 

 faction. Suddenly a louder crackling and roaring of 

 the other fire attracted our attention, and, on looking 

 round, we saw, to our horror, that some of the trees 

 surrounding the little clearing we had made had 

 caught fire. The horses, in their pushing and^ strug- 

 gling to supplant one another in the thickest of the 

 smoke, had kicked some of the blazing logs among 

 the closely-set pines, which, although green, burn 

 more fiercely than the driest timber. The moment 

 was critical enough. Cheadle, seizing an axe, rushed 

 to the place, and felled tree after tree, to isolate 

 those already fired from the rest, whilst Milton ran to 

 and fro, fetching water in a bucket from a little 

 pool, which was fortunately close at hand, and poured 

 it on the thick, dry moss through which the fire 

 was rapidly spreading along the surface of the ground. 

 We were, by this time, nearly surrounded by blazing 

 trees, and the flames flared and leapt up from branch 

 to branch, and from tree to tree, in the most appalling 

 manner, as they greedily licked up, with a crackle and 

 splutter, the congenial resin of the trunks, or devoured 

 with a flash and a fizz the inflammable leaves of the 

 flat, wide-spreading branches. The horses became 



