d up at the smoke that was
sweeping above the tops of the tallest pines. "Time was when it wudn't
amattered any, 'cause yer see, Dad Martin, he kept a good clearin' all
'raound his shack; but I guess as haow he's been an' neglected it sense
I took Lina away, an' it's all growed up with brush, thet'd burn like
tinder."

"How far away are we now from the cabin?" continued Thad, presently.

"It mout be a matter o' two mile er so," grunted Jim; for they were
pushing on at a lively pace, and there was not much breath to waste in
long sentences.

"That smoke keeps on getting heavier all the while," remarked Thad.

"She dew thet," admitted Jim.

"And my stars, how it stings a fellow's eyes," continued the
scoutmaster, who from time to time felt the tears running down his
cheeks.

Jim shook his head as he answered:

"'Tain't a circumstance tew what we'll run up aginst right soon, ef
things keeps on a gettin' wusser all ther while."

"Look! there goes a moose, upon my word; and he's making tracks as if he
didn't fear human beings one half as much as he did that crackling fire
he left behind!" Thad cried out, about five minutes later.

Shortly afterwards he discovered a huge lumbering animal rushing through
the woods to one side of them.

"Why, isn't that a black bear, Jim?" he asked, pointing as he spoke.

"It sure is," replied the guide, grinning; "an' 'baout as skeered a
black as ye cud see in a week o' Sundays. Like as not he smelled ther
smoke while he was boxed up in sum holler tree, whar he 'spected tew
stay till Spring kim along. But say, he knowed what'd happen tew him;
an' forgettin' as haow he orter be sleepin' ther winter aout, alivin' on
his fat, he jest climbs aout, an' scoots fur sum hole in ther ground he
knows is awaitin' fur him. He'll git thar, awl rite, too; 'cause I never
seed a bar cort in a forest fire, an' burned tew a crisp."

"The deer can easily escape, I suppose, being so fleet of foot?" Thad
went on.

"Gin'rally speakin' they kin," Jim replied; "an' thar goes wun rite
naow. Look at ther way he jumps over thet fallen tree like it was
nawthin'. Ef yeou an' me hed ther gift o' leapin' like thet, Thad, we
cud larf at forest fires tew."

They lapsed into silence again. The smoke began to enter their lungs
when they talked too much, and half choked them. It was getting darker,
Thad saw; and looking up, he realized that clouds had covered the
heavens; though at first he rather fancied this