THE FIRE FIEND. 109 



went along one evening, and came back satisfied that 

 there was no danger from that quarter. Imagine, 

 therefore, our surprise when one night, fully a week 

 afterwards, the very night, as I have said, after the 

 stack of ties caught fire, we beheld two or three 

 columns of smoke curling up near the spot where the 

 clearing had been done, and a haze of smoke hovering 

 amongst the trees a little higher up the mountain side. 

 Two or three of us hurried off to see what was amiss, 

 and on breasting a ridge of the road that had hitherto 

 intervened, we saw flames dancing merrily in the 

 underbrush. 



A hurried visit convinced us that there was no 

 immediate danger. Some half a dozen prostrate logs 

 were burning in half a dozen different places, and 

 the entire floor of the forest appeared to be aglow, 

 for incandescent edges or ribbons of fire showed them- 

 selves in every direction. But although there was, 

 so far as we were able to judge, no immediate danger, 

 there was undoubtedly a risk of the fire spreading 

 to the upper orchard, which was not more than two 

 hundred yards away. Once it were permitted to get 

 a hold there, nothing could save my fruit trees, and 

 these were my best trees, ten years old, and bearing 

 fruit every year. The fire must be checked in that 

 direction at all costs. 



We attempted to break up the fire by dragging 

 away the loose branches and dead sticks, by chopping 

 through the logs and leaving the portions that were 

 alight to burn themselves out, while we removed the 

 sound pieces, and by extinguishing the burning 

 carpet of moss. This last we endeavoured to effect 

 at first by stamping on it; but every stamp, whilst it 



