The St. Mary banner., 1908-05-02

heads in regular fire storm and We
could hear distinctly the roar and
cracking of flames in the near dis
tance. The heat was growing in
tense"
"Into the water ordered Harry.
He plunged in with all his clothes on,
and I was glad to follow. We
dragged the blankets with US. Now
said Harry, as cool as you please,
we've. got to keep as far under the
water as possible. Jasper, you throw
that wet blanket over your head, and
I'll cover myself with this one. But
keep ducking every minute or two,
SO the blanket don't get hot and take
fire. And keep near me-
II followed every word he said.
In few minutes the fire was upon
us. On both sides of the creek dry
trees were burning with fury, famed
by considerable breeze. Even
through the wet blankets we would
have to duck and stay under water
for six or eight seconds. Once I
dared to look from under the blanket
and saw the top of the creek steam
ing from the heat. Neither of us
said anything. The battle for our
lives took all our time and ener-
gies"
How long we were in the water
we never knew, but it must have been
some four hours. During that time
l thought that almost every minute
would be our last / expected either
to drown or to be choked to death
by the thick smoke. Once or twice
l almost fell to the bottom of the
creek from exhaustion"
even after the worst of the fire
had abated, and only heaps of charred
sticks, with here and there a bare
tree still pointing to the sky, re-
mained of the beautiful pine woods,
we dared not venture out of the
water"
when we finally did get out, the
heat of the ground was so great that
we could feel it through our shoes.
We scraped away the cinders and
sticks on the bank and made
place for our wet blankets. 1t was
somewhat more comfortable to sit
there than to stand in the creek. We
could now breathe little more
easily, but not much. The smoke was
so thick that it seemed like twilight.
but we knew it must be still early in
the afternoon"
1--WE let our clothes dry upon us.
I suppose we both fell asleep from
exhaustion, and slept a long while.
because when we got up it seemed
to be early the next morning. The
air was still hot, and traces Of smoke
were about, but the sun came out
brightly"
Refreshed by our sleep we looked
around for something to eat. Harry's
forethought was again our salvation.
saw then why he had put the re-
mains Of our ham in a pot at the
bottom of the creek. We didn't leave
anything but the bone, and then we
decided to get home as quickly as
our legs would carry u.s."
II shall never, never forget that
fifteen miles walk home. Our poor
feet were blistered from the hot
ground, our eyes were sore and swol-
len. Several times we almost gave
up. How we managed to find tur
way can scarcely explain. The sun
was our only guide in the charred
waste which we traversed. For the
last two or three miles of our walk
we staggered along like drunken
men. 1t was past ten O'Clock when
we got home. You can imagine with
what ~, we were received. The
folks had been worried to distraction,
thinking that we had perished in the
terrible fire"
II was hustled to bed and swathed
in bandages and liniment. In spite
of my pain l fell asleep in a few
minutes. My parents never gave me
one word of reproof. They could see
from my poor bruised and burned
body that l had learned great les
son in the school of experience, and
that it was not likely I would ever
run off to the woods again.
Young Peoples Paper.