distinguish ten
yards before me. The swamp immediately below us was on fire, and the heavy
wind was driving a dense black cloud of smoke directly towards us.

3. "What can this mean?" I cried. "Who can have set fire to the fallow?"
As I ceased speaking, John Thomas stood pale and trembling before me.
"John, what is the meaning of this fire?"

4. "Oh, ma'am, I hope you will forgive me; it was I set fire to it, and I
would give all I have in the world if I had not done it."

5. "What is the danger?"

6. "Oh, I'm afraid that we shall all be burnt up," said John, beginning to
whimper. "What shall we do?"

7. "Why, we must get out of it as fast as we can, and leave the house to
its fate."

8. "We can't get out," said the man, in a low, hollow tone, which seemed
the concentration of fear; "I would have got out of it if I could; but
just step to the back door, ma'am, and see."

9. Behind, before, on every side, we were surrounded by a wall of fire,
burning furiously within a hundred yards of us, and cutting off all
possibility of retreat; for, could we have found an opening through the
burning heaps, we could not have seen our way through the dense canopy of
smoke; and, buried as we were in the heart of the forest, no one could
discover our situation till we were beyond the reach of help.

10. I closed the door, and went back to the parlor. Fear was knocking
loudly at my heart, for our utter helplessness destroyed all hope of our
being able to effect our escape. The girl sat upon the floor by the
children, who, unconscious of the peril that hung over them, had both
fallen asleep. She was silently weeping; while the boy who had caused the
mischief was crying aloud.

11. A strange calm succeeded my first alarm. I sat down upon the step of
the door, and watched the awful scene in silence. The fire was raging in
the cedar swamp immediately below the ridge on which the house stood, and
it presented a spectacle truly appalling.

12. From out of the dense folds of a canopy of black smoke--the blackest I
ever saw--leaped up red forks of lurid flame as high as the tree tops,
igniting the branches of a group of tall pines that had been left for saw
logs. A deep gloom blotted out the heavens from our sight. The air was
filled with fiery particles, which floated even to the doorstep--while the
crackling and roaring of the flames might have been heard at a great
distance.

13. To reach the shore of the lake, we must pass thro