THE FIRE.

Raymond let the cattle browse about, while he went to work, cutting down
some small, but yet pretty tall and bushy trees. He then brought up the
team, and hooked a long chain into the ring which hung down from the
middle of the yoke, upon the under side. The end of the chain trailed
upon the ground, as the oxen came along, and Caleb was very much
interested to see how they would trample along, any where, among the
rocks, roots, mire, logs, bushes, stumps, and, in fact, over and through
almost any thing, chewing their cud all the time, patient and
unconcerned. When they were brought up near to one of the trees that had
been cut down, Raymond would hook the chain around the butt end of it,
and then, at his command, they would drag it out of its place in the
line of the fence. After looking on for some time, Caleb began to think
that he would go to work; and he went to a little tree, with a stem
about as big round as his arm, and began to saw away upon it. He found
that the saw would run very well indeed; and in a short time, he got the
tree off, and then undertook to drag it to the fence.

Raymond was always a very silent man; he seldom spoke, unless to answer
a question; and while Caleb had been watching him, when he first began
to work, instead of talking with Caleb, as Caleb would have desired, he
was all the time singing,

"Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do."

The truth was, that Raymond had just begun to go to a singing school,
and he was taking this opportunity to rise and fall the notes, as he
called it. When Caleb asked him any question about his work, he would
just answer it in a few words, and then, a minute after, begin again
with his '_Do_, _Re_, _Mi_,' and all the rest.

Caleb became tired of this singing; and when, at length, his tree got
wedged fast, so that he could not move it any farther, he sat down
discouraged upon a log, and looked anxiously towards Raymond, as if he
wished that he would come and help him.

Raymond had just hooked his chain to another tree, and taking up his
goad stick, called out,

"Ha', Star! ha', Lion!" and then as his oxen started on, he followed
them with his--

"Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do."

"Dear me!" said Caleb, with a deep sigh.

"Do, Si, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do," sang Raymond, coming down the scale.

Caleb got up, and walked along towards Raymond a little way, and called
out,

"Raymond?"

"What?" said Raymond.

"When do you think you shall