Homesteading 



and let us be off and try to save some of those 

 men up yonder.'* 



Hastily passing a few buckets full of water from 

 the lake to the partly emptied cask, four of us, 

 including Tom and myself, climbed into the wagon, 

 and, passing the saved homestead, were soon 

 racing across the rising ground in a north- 

 westerly direction. 



Harry had rightly diagnosed the situation, for 

 the flames were now roaring through the scrub 

 at the west end of the water, and a little 

 lumber shack, fortunately unoccupied, as its 

 owner was away working in the woods, was 

 blazing. 



Before the advancing fire lay a stretch of longj 

 grass on an unoccupied railroad section, and! 

 beyond this again, in front of a little bluff which | 

 sheltered it from the north and partly surrounded! 

 it, was a settler's log shack and stable. Herej 



lived Jack , as we knew him, with his wife and 



three children, the eldest a girl of twelve, with 

 two brothers of seven and five respectively. As 

 we held on as best we could in the rattling wagon| 

 behind the good team, which Sunny Jim was: 

 driving at a gallop, we thought of their perilous! 

 situation with apprehension. We had crossed! 

 the outer line of the advancing fire, which wasp 

 now sweeping up behind us, and as we approached! 



272 . :: 



