that you can
just make up your mind to stand aside and let her rip!"

Jim pulled up his book and examined his bait carefully.

"Fish seem off us," he said.

"That all the yarn?" Harry asked.

"No, there's more, if you're not sick of it."

"Well, fire away," Wally said impatiently.

Jim let his sinker go down gently until it settled in comfort in the
soft mud at the bottom.

"This is where I come to Norah," he said.

That young lady turned a lively red.

"If you're going to tell all that bosh about me, I'm off," she said,
disgustedly. "Good-bye. You can call me when you've finished."

"Where are you off to, Norah?" inquired Harry.

"Somewhere to fish--I'm tired of you old gossips--" Norah elevated a
naturally tilted nose as she wound up her tackle and rose to her feet.
She made her way along the log past the three boys until she reached the
land, and, scrambling up the bank, vanished in the scrub. Presently they
saw her reappear at a point a little lower down, where she ensconced
herself in the roots of a tree that was sticking out of the bank, and
looked extremely unsafe. She flung her line in below her perch.

"Hope she's all right," Harry said uneasily.

"You bet. Norah knows what she's about," Jim said calmly. "She can swim
like a fish anyhow!"

"Well, go on with your yarn," urged Wally.

"Well--I told you how we stopped the fire at the little creek, didn't I?
We thought it was pretty safe after we had burnt such a good break, and
the men with axes had chopped down nearly all the big trees that were
alight, so that they couldn't spread the fire. We reckoned we could sit
down and mop our grimy brows and think what fine, brave, bold heroes we
were! Which we did.

"There was one big tree the men couldn't get down. It was right on a bit
of a hill, near the bank of the creek--a big brute of a tree, hollow for
about twelve feet, and I don't know how high, but I'll bet it was over a
hundred and fifty feet. It got alight from top to bottom, and, my word,
didn't it blaze!

"The men tried to chop it down, but it was too hot a job even for a
salamander. We could only watch it, and it took a lot of watching,
because it was showering sparks and bits of wood, and blazing limbs and
twigs in every direction. Lots of times they blew into the dead grass
beyond our break, and it meant galloping to put them out.

"The wind had been pretty high all the time, and it got up suddenly to a
regular gale. It caught this