108 FRUIT RANCHING. 



Our first efforts were directed to saving a big tele- 

 graph post belonging to the railway, for the ties were 

 stacked up, almost touching it. A few minutes' 

 frantic pushing and pulling and levering enabled us 

 to throw the worst of the ties apart. The telegraph 

 pole was saved; but our stable was still in jeopardy 

 from the sparks. 



Meanwhile Maggie, Frances, Dorothy, Leslie, and 

 Olive were carrying buckets of water, and pouring 

 them on the ties as we pulled them apart. In the 

 midst of the confusion Mrs. Lawrie was so upset by 

 the occurrence that she fainted away, and one member 

 of our scanty forces had to be withdrawn to attend 

 to her and bring her back to consciousness. As soon 

 as the ties were pulled apart and lay scattered singly 

 over the roadway, we all took our turns at the buckets, 

 and it was not long before we had the fire completely 

 extinguished. The cause of the pile igniting was no 

 doubt a spark from a train which had passed about 

 half an hour before. 



The next alarm of tliis nature that we had was 

 neither so imminent nor so menacing; but, on the 

 other hand, it was a good deal more obstinate and 

 difficult to subdue. It occurred the very next night 

 after we put out the blazing stack of railway ties. 



Calaby, in the course of a week's relief from other 

 work, had begun to clear a piece of new ground beside 

 the upper orchard. He cut down the scrub — big trees 

 there were none — and piled it into heaps, and, having 

 added to these the stumps and roots w-hich he grubbed 

 up, proceeded to set fire to the stacks of rubbish. 

 These burned for two days, and then the fires died 

 out, or appeared to do so. To make sure, I myself 



