was about fifty feet wide. On each side was the burning forest,
with a row of burned trees like fiery columns, and the moss and
underbrush still glowing beneath. To pass through that was a thing
that it don't do to look back upon. The air was intolerable. I wrapped
my coat tighter over my head; my arms were thus exposed, and I felt
the heat on my hands. But that was nothing to the torments that I
endured from trying to breathe. Besides this, the enormous effort of
keeping up a run made breathing all the more difficult. A feeling of
despair came over me. Already we had gone half the distance, but at
that moment the space seemed lengthened out interminably, and I looked
in horror at the rest of the way, with a feeling of the utter
impossibility of traversing it.

[Illustration: THE FIERY TRIAL.]

"Suddenly the lady fell headlong. I stopped and raised her up. My coat
fell off; I felt the fiery air all round my face and head. I called
and screamed to the lady as I tried to raise her up; but she said
nothing. She was as lifeless as a stone.

"Well, my boy, I thought it was all up with me; but I, at least, could
stand, though I did not think that I could take another breath. As for
the lady, there was no help for it; so I grasped her with all my
strength, still keeping her head covered as well as I could, and slung
her over my shoulders. Then away I ran. I don't remember much after
that. I must have lost my senses then, and, what is more, I must have
accomplished the rest of the journey in that semi-unconscious state.

"What I do remember is this--a wild plunge into the water; and the
delicious coolness that I felt all around restored me, and I at once
comprehended all. The lady was by my side; the shock and the cool
water had restored her also. She was standing up to her shoulders just
where she had fallen, and was panting and sobbing. I spoke a few words
of good cheer, and then looked around for some place of refuge. Just
where we stood there was nothing but fire and desolation, and it was
necessary to go further away. Well, some distance out, about half-way
across the river, I saw a little island, with rocky sides, and trees
on the top. It looked safe and cool and inviting. I determined to try
to get there. Some deals were in the water by the bank, which had
probably floated down from some saw-mill. I took half a dozen of
these, flung two or three more on top of them, and then told the lady
my plan. It was to float ou