hands and we were proud of it we too were fire men we thought as we danced there white in the the dried grass and caught fire but we did not notice it suddenly a great tree on the edge of the open space burst into flames we looked at it with startled eyes the heat of it drove us back another tree caught and another and then half a dozen we were frightened the monster had broken loose we crouched down in fear while the fire ate around the circle and hemmed us in into ear s eyes came the plaintive look that always accompanied before adam and i know that in my eyes must have been the same look we huddled with our arms around each other until the heat began to reach us and the of burning hair was in our nostrils then we made a dash of it and fled away westward through the forest looking back and laughing as we ran by the middle of the day we came to a neck of land made as we afterward discovered by a great curve of the river that almost completed a circle right across the neck lay several low and partly wooded hills over these we climbed looking backward at the forest which had become a sea of flame that swept eastward before a rising wind we continued to the west following the river bank and before we knew it we were in the midst of the abiding place of the fire people this abiding place was a splendid selection it was a protected on three sides by the river on only one side was it accessible by land this was the narrow neck of the and here the several low hills were a natural obstacle before adam practically isolated from the rest of the world the fire people must have here lived and for a long time in fact i think it was their prosperity that was responsible for the subsequent such calamity upon the folk the fire people must have increased in numbers until they pressed against the bounds of their they were and in the course of their they drove the folk before them and settled down themselves in the and occupied the territory that we had occupied but ear and i little dreamed of all this when we found ourselves in the fire people s we had but one idea and that was to get away though we could not forbear our curiosity by peeping out upon the village for the first time we saw the women and children of the fire people the latter ran for the most part naked though the former wore skins of wild animals the fire people like ourselves lived in the open space in front of the down to the river and in the open space before adam burned many small fires but whether or not the fire people cooked their food i do not know ear and i did not see them cook yet it is my opinion that they surely must have performed some sort of rude like us they carried water in from the river there was much coming and going and loud cries made by the women and children the latter played about and cut up quite in the same way as did the children of the folk and they more nearly resembled the children of the folk than did the grown fire people resemble the grown folk ear and i did not linger long we saw some of the part grown boys shooting with bow and arrow and we back into the thicker forest and made our way to the river and there we found a a real one evidently made by some fire man the two logs were small and straight and were lashed together by means of tough roots and of wood this time the idea occurred simultaneously to us we were trying to escape out of the before adam fire people s territory what better way than by crossing the river on these logs we climbed on board and off a sudden something the and flung it violently against the bank the abrupt almost whipped us off into the water the was tied to a tree by a rope of twisted roots this we before off again by the time we had well out into the current we had drifted so far that we were in full view of the fire people s abiding place so occupied were we with our our eyes fixed upon the other bank that we knew nothing until aroused by a yell from the shore we looked around there were the fire people many of them looking at us and pointing at us and more were crawling out of the we sat up to watch and forgot all about there was a great on the shore some of the fire men discharged their bows at us and a few of the arrows fell near us but the range was too great before adam it was a great day for ear and me to the east the we had started was filling half the sky with smoke and here we were perfectly safe in the middle of the river the fire people s we sat and laughed at them as we dashed by swinging south and to east and even to and then east again and south and on around to the west a great double curve where the river nearly tied a knot in itself as we swept on to the west the fire people far behind a familiar scene flashed upon our eyes it was the great drinking place where we had wandered once or twice to watch the before adam of the animals when they came down to drink beyond it we knew was the patch and beyond that the and the of the we began to for the bank that 