Part 18 (1/2)
”It won't bother us unless the wind changes,” he reenerally does change when you'd sooner it did not, and it's not safe to trust your luck le on thethe white man off”
”But white men do live in the h Theyand then use the best tools other round they've won
We're scouts, carrying axes, saws, and giant-powder, but the main body must cooperate to defend its settlements with civilization's heavy ets hed ”You're romantic when you talk about the North Could the fire bother us?”
”That depends It couldn't burn the line, though it ht burn the posts If it spread and rolled up the valley, it round and stop the job”
”While aited the boys would have to be fed and wages would run on,”
Carrie said in a thoughtful voice ”How do the fires start?”
”nobody knows I allow it looks ridiculous, but my notion is so in belts of woods the Indians and prospectors leave alone So fires The man who knows the bush is careful; the tenderfoot is not”
”Then you don't think so this fire?”
”On the whole, I reckon not The chances against its bothering us are too steep For all that, I'd like it better if the blaze went out”
Carrie said nothing, and for a tiht Soer, and when they went to bed a red reflection played about the sky In thethere was no wind and a heavy trail of sht flicker pierced the dark trail, and Carrie noted a s when she filled the kettle Then she saw Jier, isn't it?” she asked
”Yes,” said Ji and look at it after breakfast”
They ate quickly and when the meal was over Jim and Carrie set off while Jake went to work It was not easy to push through the tangled bush, and now and then Jim was forced to clear a path with his ax
After a time he stopped behind a trunk and touched Carrie, who saw an ani fallen branch with a flying bound, vanished al out with forelegs bent sprang across a thicket Carrie thought it hardly touched the ground It onderfully swift and graceful, and although the forest was choked with undergrowth and rotting logs all was very quiet when the anilad you stopped me! I haven't seen a wild deer before”
”They are hard to see,” Jiround at a very short distance However, I didn't like the way that deer was going It passed pretty close, without seeing ere about”
Noting that the scra stone, and Carrie ot her breath By and by she looked up and saw his twinkling glance
”Yes,” she said, ”I was thinking rather hard; I thought it was good for me to come North All was always just the same at the store; the dull street, the roceries There was nothing different; you knew you would do to-ress when the reckoning cah to pay the bills, you were satisfied, and sometimes there was not But I really ress of any kind; you were slipping back”
”Slipping back? I'et that----”
”So back wasn't altogether right Iand soon I'd be old and sour I didn't want to feel I'd done nothing and had never tasted life Well, my chance caood time yet,” Jim remarked
Carrie's eyes sparkled ”One alants soun to live I've seen the woods and the wild back country; I' job”
”Your help is worth irl is supposed to like; for example, pretty clothes, opera tickets, a holiday at a fashi+onable suht to have”
”I do like pretty clothes and think I'd like to meet s where they belonged and ht leave me out Do you think that would happen, Jim?”