The wider we can make it the better."
All fell to work with hearty zeal. Looking over their shoulders,
the sky now appeared on fire. Flickering tongues of flame seemed to
struggle upward. There was an occasional sound of feet, as herds of
deer flew by before the danger.
"How far will it go, papa, do you think?" Hubert asked his father,
next to whom he was at work.
"I should say that it would most likely stop at the stream where we
halted to-day, Hubert. The ground was wet and boggy for some
distance on the other side."
The horses were now getting very restive, and there was a momentary
pause from work to wrap ponchos round their heads, so as to prevent
their seeing the glare.
The fire could not have been more than three miles distant, when
the space cleared was as wide as Mr. Hardy deemed necessary for
safety. A regular noise, something between a hiss and a roar, was
plainly audible; and when the wind lifted the smoke the flames
could be seen running along in an unbroken wall of fire. Birds flew
past overhead with terrified cries, and a close, hot smell of
burning was very plainly distinguishable.
Starting about halfway along the side of the cleared piece of
ground, Mr. Hardy set the dry grass alight. For a moment or two it
burned slowly, and then, fanned by the wind, It gained force, and
spread in a semicircle of flame.
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