epened the whole
western half of the sky, from north to south and almost overhead, seemed
to be aflame. Now, too, we could hear the roaring of the fire in the
distance, like the noise the wind makes in the pine-trees before a
thunderstorm. Then my father began to move, not away from the fire,
however, but down the stream, and the stream ran almost due west
straight towards it. What a terrible trip that was! The fire was, of
course, much farther away than it looked; the smoke had been carried
with the wind many miles ahead of the fire itself, and we could not yet
see the flames, but only the awful glare in the sky. But, in my
inexperience, I thought it was close upon us, and, with the dreadful
roaring growing louder and louder in my ears, every minute was an agony.

[Illustration: "NOT FIFTY YARDS AWAY WAS MAN."]

But my father and mother went steadily on, and there was nothing to do
but to follow them. Sometimes we left the stream for a little to make a
short-cut, but we soon came back to it, and for the most part we kept in
the middle of the water, or where it was deep close to the bank.

At last we reached our pool above the beaver-dam, and here, feeling his
way cautiously well out into the middle, till he found a place where it
was just deep enough for Kahwa and me to be able to lift our heads above
the water, father stopped. By this time the air was so hot that it was
hard to breathe without dipping one's mouth constantly in the water, and
for the roaring of the flames I could not hear Kahwa whimpering at my
side, or the rush of the stream below the dam. And we soon found that we
were not alone in the pool. My friend the kingfisher was not there, but
close beside us were old Grey Wolf and his wife, and, as I remembered
that Grey Wolf was considered the wisest animal in the mountains, I
began to feel more comfortable, and was glad that we had not run away
with the others. The beavers--what a lot of them there were!--were in a
state of great excitement, climbing out on to the top of the dam and
slapping the logs and the water with their tails, then plunging into the
water, only to climb out again and plunge in once more. Once a small
herd of deer, seven or eight of them, came rushing into the water,
evidently intending to stay there, but their courage failed them.
Whether it was the proximity of Grey Wolf or whether it was mere
nervousness I do not know, but after they had settled down in the water
one of them was s