fire began
more and more to resemble a cone of flame. High up above the smoke
which rolled like clouds of gold, and the tongues of fire which kept
leaping up and up to the high branches, there was still a green spire
dark and dimly seen as it rose to some two hundred and fifty feet above
where we stood. But that upper portion was catching alight fast now,
and the hissing crackle of the burning was accompanied by sharp reports
and flashes, the heat growing so intense that one had to back away,
while quite a sharp current of cold air began to rush past our ears to
sweep out and fan the flames.

"What a pity!" I said at last, as I turned to Esau, who stood there
with his eyes glowing in the light, Quong being seated on a stone
holding his knees, as he crouched together, his yellow forehead
wrinkled, and little black eyes sparkling the while.

"Yes, I s'pose it's a pity," said Esau, thoughtfully. "My! how it
burns. I s'pose there's tar and turpentine and rosin in that big tree?"

"Why, Esau," I said suddenly, as a thought struck me, "how about the
bear?"

"Bear? Where?" he cried, grasping my arm. "Not here," I said with a
laugh. "No wild beast would come near that fire. I mean how about your
hurts?"

"My hurts?" he said, beginning to feel his arms. "Oh, I'd forgotten all
about them."

"No fear of its catching any other tree," said Gunson, returning to
where we stood after being away, though I had not missed him. "I've
been all round it, and there isn't another for twenty yards."

"But it will set light to them when it falls," I said.

"No, my lad. That tree's enormous at the bottom, but the boughs grow
smaller and smaller till the top is like a point. Look, the fire is
reaching it now, and it will go on burning till the trunk stands up half
burned down, and then gradually go out, leaving a great pointed stick of
charred wood. No fear of its falling either upon us. I should have
been sorry for us to have started a forest fire, that might have burned
for weeks."

He ceased speaking, and we all stood gazing in awe at the magnificent
spectacle as the flames rushed higher and higher, till from top to
bottom there before us was a magnificent cone of roaring fire, which
fluttered and scintillated, and sent up golden clouds of tiny sparks far
away into the air, while a thin canopy of smoke spread over us, and
reflected back the glow till the valley far around looked almost as
light as day, and the green