desperate compliance with the trapper's direction. Even Ellen
lent her hands to the labour, nor was it long before Inez was seen
similarly employed, though none amongst them knew why or wherefore.
When life is thought to be the reward of labour, men are wont to be
industrious. A very few moments sufficed to lay bare a spot of some
twenty feet in diameter. Into one edge of this little area the trapper
brought the females, directing Middleton and Paul to cover their light
and inflammable dresses with the blankets of the party. So soon as this
precaution was observed, the old man approached the opposite margin of
the grass, which still environed them in a tall and dangerous circle,
and selecting a handful of the driest of the herbage he placed it over
the pan of his rifle. The light combustible kindled at the flash. Then
he placed the little flame in a bed of the standing fog, and withdrawing
from the spot to the centre of the ring, he patiently awaited the
result.

The subtle element seized with avidity upon its new fuel, and in a
moment forked flames were gliding among the grass, as the tongues of
ruminating animals are seen rolling among their food, apparently in
quest of its sweetest portions.

"Now," said the old man, holding up a finger, and laughing in his
peculiarly silent manner, "you shall see fire fight fire! Ah's me! many
is the time I have burnt a smooty path, from wanton laziness to pick my
way across a tangled bottom."

"But is this not fatal?" cried the amazed Middleton; "are you not
bringing the enemy nigher to us instead of avoiding it?"

"Do you scorch so easily? your grand'ther had a tougher skin. But we
shall live to see; we shall all live to see."

The experience of the trapper was in the right. As the fire gained
strength and heat, it began to spread on three sides, dying of itself on
the fourth, for want of aliment. As it increased, and the sullen roaring
announced its power, it cleared every thing before it, leaving the black
and smoking soil far more naked than if the scythe had swept the place.
The situation of the fugitives would have still been hazardous had not
the area enlarged as the flame encircled them. But by advancing to the
spot where the trapper had kindled the grass, they avoided the heat,
and in a very few moments the flames began to recede in every quarter,
leaving them enveloped in a cloud of smoke, but perfectly safe from the
torrent of fire that was still furiously rolling