Part 18 (2/2)
”Certainly not,” Jiet left out
I dare say pretty girls are numerous, but you have a calm and a confidence that make their mark”
Carrie smiled, but there was some color in her face ”I suppose youat the store and cooking for the boys!”
”I've seen you nursingto see you wear the smartest clothes money can buy But there's much to be done first and I'm bothered about the fire”
They pushed on while the ser, and presently cay cloud rolled up behind it and as they cliasped and her eyes opened wide
The spur coh the woods below In the foreground a wall of tossing fla up here and there, ran in yellow trails to the top of the tall firs It advanced sloith an angry roar, licking up the dry brush and branches before the big trunks caught In front they were hung with strealowed red, and in the distance s rampikes towered above a wide belt of ash Now and then one leaned and fell, and showers of sparks shot up as if the log had exploded
The shock of the fall hardly pierced the confused uproar, and Carrie, shi+elding her scorched face with her hand, was appalled by the din
Green wood split with detonating cracks, the snapping of branches was like musketry, and the flames roared in a deep undertone Her dress fluttered, for eddying draughts swept the rocks She was dazzled but fascinated, unconscious of heat and fear, for she had not seen or iined a spectacle like this
”It's tremendous!” she said in an awed voice
”Pretty fierce,” Jirip you like the break up of the ice When the river bursts the jarind the rocks smooth and rub out the pines You can hear the wreck drive down the channel a day's journey off”
”I thought it a silent country It's often so quiet itforbidding in its quietness that's like a threat? Well, it wakes up and gets busy in a dramatic way now and then If you want to live in the ot to be watchful”
A wave of smoke rolled about them and sparks drove past like hail A fiery shower fell on Carrie's thin dress and Jian without embarrassot red as he ran his s hands across the thin ht stuff and will soon catch fire”
Then, picking off a glowing cinder, he took her arm and they started down hill When they caasped
”Oh, Jim, you have burned your hands!” she said
”Not much They're hard and I have often hurt them worse It's your dress that bothers me Look at the charred spots”
”But you're not to blahtn't to have let you stay”
”I wanted to stay”
”That doesn't matter,” Jim declared ”My business was to take care of you In fact, it'sof a responsibility, Jio on”
They stopped again before they reached the caled bush is hard work, and Carrie sat down on a fallen trunk
”Isn't the fireup the valley?” she asked
”It is,” Jiht wind However, on't talk about this yet” He paused and touched her dress ”Here's another big hole You can't reed