A CAMP-FIRE RUN WILD 



them with an eager tongue, then with 

 the next eddying breath scatters its 

 crumbs of sparks into the verge of the 

 forest. These the rising breeze fans till 

 it loads itself with a light burden of 

 smoke, shifted now here, now there, as 

 it is trailed along the forest floor, now 

 climbing among the branches, then soar- 

 ing skyward. 



Little flames creep along the bodies 

 of fallen trees and fluffy windrows of 

 dry leaves, toying like panther kittens 

 with their assured prey, and then, grown 

 hungry with such dainty tasting, the 

 flames upburst in a mad fury of devour- 

 ing. They climb 'swifter than panthers 

 to treetops, falling back they gnaw sav- 

 agely at tree roots, till the ancient lords 

 of the forest reel and topple and fall be- 

 fore the gathering wind, and bear their 

 destroyer still onward. 



The leeward woods are thick with a 

 blinding, stifling smoke, through which 

 all the wild creatures of the forest flee 

 in terror, whither they know not — by 

 chance to safety, by equal chance perhaps 

 to a terrible death in the surging deluge 

 of fire. The billows of flame heave and 

 i6o 



