thirty
dollars an acre for the privilege of cutting off the wood, and, at
that rate, three and a half acres would be more than enough."

So the sale was effected, and, with the hundred dollars in his pocket,
the clergyman started one morning on horseback for the Land Office,
thirty-seven miles distant. A horseback ride across a Minnesota
prairie is highly exhilarating, and both horse and rider were in good
spirits. Seemingly half borne on by a sweeping prairie wind, Mr.
Payson reached his destination in some five hours, in season for an
early tea; and the next morning he was conducted to the Land Office by
a lawyer acquaintance, and, with a witness at hand to prove what he
affirmed, stated, under oath, that he had, on the land he wished to
pre-empt, a cabin and other improvements to the amount that the law
required; and then, having paid his hundred dollars, he started
towards home with a light heart.

The day became dark and cloudy; and, as there was only a faint cart
track across the prairies, the minister found, in the course of the
afternoon, that he had lost his way. There were no cabins at which he
could retrieve his error, and, after many vain endeavors to find the
track, he let his horse take his own course; and, carrying his master
under low-branched trees and through thorny thickets, across a swamp,
he brought him out at last by a much shorter route than he had taken
in going, on the farther bank of the river, near the town.

As the clergyman neared the village, he noticed heavy volumes of smoke
ascending. Then he saw Mr. Palmer with a force of men busily engaged
in checking a fire that was careering through the bushes. There was a
wall of flame between him and them. Striking the road, he dashed
through the glowing boundary; and Mr. Palmer, beckoning to him,
said,--

"We have rather bad news to tell you, though not so bad as it might
have been. A fire commenced near your place yesterday afternoon, and
came near burning the town."

"A fire there!" ejaculated the minister. "How did it start?"

"I cannot stop to tell you," said his bachelor friend; "but your wife,
when you get home, will tell you all about it. Had it not been for
her, we should have been swept away."

What a sight met the clergyman's eye as he came into the town! The
entire area, before so like a lawn, looked as if the contents of a
large ink-pot had been spread over it. He was relieved, however, to
see that his cabin and the other hous