"It's a fire, all right!" announced Paul, after he had taken a good look.
"No question about that," declared Seth, who was right on the heels of the others, for you could never keep him quiet when there was anything going on, because he always wanted to be "in the swim."
"Yes, either a house, or a barn ablaze," remarked Eben, sagely.
"Might be only a hay stack, you know," suggested Jotham.
"Don't burn like that to me; I seem to see something of a building every now and then, when the flames shoot up," Paul went on to remark, for he was always discovering things upon which to found a reasonable theory.
"How far away does it lie, dy'e think, Paul?" asked Andy.
"Not more than half a mile, I should say," came the reply.
"Just my idea to a dot," Jotham admitted.
"Why, you c'n even hear the crackle of the flames, whenever the night wind happens to blow this way," Babe Adams asserted; and they all agreed with him, for the same sound had come to their ears also.
"We might help the poor old farmer, if we only happened to be closer," Eben said, in the goodness of his heart.