. St. Nicholas [serial] . had started. If it ever jumped the brookand got to the oil-tank, the station, and the firstline of houses, our beloved little village, the capi-tal of Wildyrie, as E. L. called it, might be wipedout. Already men were streaming from the upperroad with shovels. Will you take charge of called the village president, to me, in-cluding the immediate vicinity in his hand-sweep,Ive got to oversee the ridge section. If it evergets there, we re goners. I nodded. E. L., I said, this is your bap-tism of fire. \ouve got to be my aide in gettingour forces organized. The
. St. Nicholas [serial] . had started. If it ever jumped the brookand got to the oil-tank, the station, and the firstline of houses, our beloved little village, the capi-tal of Wildyrie, as E. L. called it, might be wipedout. Already men were streaming from the upperroad with shovels. Will you take charge of called the village president, to me, in-cluding the immediate vicinity in his hand-sweep,Ive got to oversee the ridge section. If it evergets there, we re goners. I nodded. E. L., I said, this is your bap-tism of fire. \ouve got to be my aide in gettingour forces organized. The boy, his face flushed with the run, hisearly spring tan giving him a handsome, veteranappearance, saluted. It s easy to see that the brook is the line tohold, I said. Break into Marins (the hardwarestore) and see that all the men going by getshovels. I will send you instructions by boy,later. We parted. The light of sudden respon-sibility in his eyes was beautiful. To understand the situation this rough map I ran up the slope to the pine grove just west ofBerts, the canoe-makers, house and from theresaw the entire battle-field. A cinder, probablyfrom Mr. Leonards train, had ignited the duff(dry pine-needles, resinous stumps, etc.) at thecurve of the tracks, at X. The breeze, thoughlight, was from the west and freshening, and hadalready enlarged the circle of fire until it includedhalf the tangle of timber and thicket between therailroad and the Chub River. This stream, whileno wider than a brook and inhabited by trout in-stead of chub, was the only natural barrier be-tween the fire and the dwellings. It had to beheld, and it was this task that the village presi-dent had waved upon me while he led most of themen up the farther hills, where nothing but wood-lots and dry fields separated the village properfrom destruction. The fire was now an irregular line, a quarter of amile long, moving not fast, but steadily. When itreached a dry balsam, the flames would leap li
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstnicholasserial4721dodg
