The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-08-18
burns; the stencil Of his burnt hail


full waves OF fire. The heat of II
nearly suffocated us. knew the
house must soon catch and burn and
soaking table-cloth for my head, |
got up to the hole In the roof and
began throwing out water again as
fast as Elsie and the old Chinaman
could pass 1t to me. With every
third or fourth bucketful | soaked
that tablecloth and kept 1t over my
head and shoulders. When the gusts
of flame came | had to draw down
till they passed.
"The gale had been blowing from
the west, but now the gusts seemed
to come from every quarter; they
were like whlrlwinds, sucking this
way and that. Most of all, the wind
mill worried u.s. If that stopped
whirling the water would stop COM
Ing into the tank. Then nothing
could save us. The water was our
only hope. When these counter gusts
began to come the windmill would
stop and while round and Elsie
would cry out, It's stopped! Oh, it's
sonen Then up at the hole l would
strain my eyes to see II the wind
mill had blown down.
"Often | could not see It for smoke.
| expected 1t would blow down, for Il
seemed as IL nothing could stand those
gusts. But every time, when the
smoke cleared bit, | saw the faith
full thing whirling again. How 1t
stood 1t | don't know; but It did.
twirling first this way, then that. II
1t had been of wood 1t must have
burned with that first wave of fire.
Il kept dipping my hands in the
water and splashing my face; but |
was blistered and smarting, although
In the excitement / hardly noticed
that. The logs at the north end of
the shack took fire three times, but
watching my chance, when the gusts
slackened, | rushed out and dashed
water on them White steam rolled
up in clouds off the whole house.
AT length the counter gusts were
so conflicting that the windmill
stopped pumping for some minutes.
The clouds of smoke and fine ashes,
too, were now so thick that we could
not see down to the river. Elsie Is
a plucky girl, as brave as need be,
despair.
It's all over with us, Murray
she whispered, for she knew as well
as l that the house must burn If the
windmill stopped.
But just then / caught sight of II
again, twirling round in the smoke,
the tail bobbing this way and that.
1t looked lopsided, 1t was getting such
rough usage and l could see that 1t
wabbled as it started to turn again.
But turn 1t did; and a moment later
Elsie came running from the kitchen
and shouted up to me that water was
coming once more. But l can tell
you that those were anxious moments
for us!
1T went on much like that for
nearly two hours; and then l began
to notice that the fire and smoke were
thinning out-for the very good rea-
son that everything combustible had
burned up, evergreen trees and old
stumps clear down into the ground,
with nothing left but ashes. So great
had been the heat that when once 1t
was gone 1t was all gone, with no
Goals nor brands left to smoke or
smolder.
miles away we could see that the
confiagration was still raging, but
round us it was over. Terribly DESC
late, too, the whole region looked,
with all the green forest gone. The
outside of our shack was actually
charred black.
What with that burned horse and
all, we were in such bad shape inside
our shack that got them all out of
doors as soon as the ground was cool
enough to step on. Two of the Chi
nese had their clothes nearly burned
off them, and were in sad condi-
ton, whimpering from their burns.
The children, too, were crying and
the women lamenting that they had
no homes left and nowhere to go.
"We soon learned that Fernie had
wholly burned, as also the lumber
mills and nearly everything else
along the river. Luckily we had
-four and other groceries in the
kitchen. Elsie began cooking; and
we fed and did what we could for
our queer refugees for two days, till
the relief trains began to come in
from the outside world.
But that afternoon, as soon as we
were able to stir out of the house,
Elsie and l went down to the river
bank to look at that windmill. The
paint was all blistered off the vanes
and the tripod. 1t 'limped' and
squeaked as it turned, for the oil had
burned out Of the cogs. 1t was a
wreck. yet it still turned and kept
water going up to the shack.
Elsie shed tears over it.
oh, you poor dear, brave thing,'
she cried. 4 know you're nothing
but piece of iron, but should like
to pat you! Youths Companion.
Europeans have discovered that