260 



THE ADIRONDACK. 



that shrouded it, as though defying its enemy. Even 

 after the blaze had curled itself around the entire 

 trunk, and run out to the extreme limits of the 

 branches, it still retained its calm and dignified aspect 

 — its head, and body, and arrns reaching out into the 

 night, all on fire, and yet scorning to show signs of 

 pain. At length, however, the heat seemed to have 

 reached its vitals, for it suddenly swung backward, as 

 if in agony, while a shower of embers fell like sky 

 rockets around the blazing outline, to its roots. Shorn 

 of its glory, the flashing, trembling form stood thus 

 awhile, crisping and writhing in the blaze, till weary 

 with its long suffering, it threw itself with a sudden 

 and hurried sweep, on the funeral pile around. From 

 the noble pine to the bending sprout, the trees were 

 aflame, while the crackling underbrush seemed a 

 fiery net- work cast over the prostrate forms of the 

 monarchs of the forest. When the fire caught a dry 

 stub, it ran up the huge trunk like a serpent, and, 

 coiling around the withered branches, shot out its 

 fiery tongue as if in mad joy, over the raging element 

 below ; while ever and anon, came a crash that 

 reverberated far away in the gorges — the crash of 

 falling trees, at the overthrow of which there went 



