“Thet I kain’t tell,” replied Jim, as he looked up at the smoke that was sweeping above the tops of the tallest pines. “Time was when it wudn’t amattered any, ’cause yer see, Dad Martin, he kept a good clearin’ all ’raound his shack; but I guess as haow he’s been an’ neglected it sense I took Lina away, an’ it’s all growed up with brush, thet’d burn like tinder.”
“How far away are we now from the cabin?” continued Thad, presently.
“It mout be a matter o’ two mile er so,” grunted Jim; for they were pushing on at a lively pace, and there was not much breath to waste in long sentences.
“That smoke keeps on getting heavier all the while,” remarked Thad.
“She dew thet,” admitted Jim.
“And my stars, how it stings a fellow’s eyes,” continued the scoutmaster, who from time to time felt the tears running down his cheeks.
Jim shook his head as he answered:
“’Tain’t a circumstance tew what we’ll run up aginst right soon, ef things keeps on a gettin’ wusser all ther while.”
“Look! there goes a moose, upon my word; and he’s making tracks as if he didn’t fear human beings one half as much as he did that crackling fire he left behind!” Thad cried out, about five minutes later.
Shortly afterwards he discovered a huge lumbering animal rushing through the woods to one side of them.