CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRE BEAR.
One evening in December, a few weeks after Liney had saved Balser’s life by means of the borrowed fire, Balser’s father and mother and Mr. and Mrs. Fox, went to Marion, a town of two houses and a church, three miles away, to attend “Protracted Meeting.” Liney and Tom and the Fox baby remained with Balser and Jim and the Brent baby, at the Brent cabin.
When the children were alone Liney proceeded to put the babies to sleep, and when those small heads of their respective households were dead to the world in slumber, rocked to that happy condition in a cradle made from the half of a round, smooth log, hollowed out with an adze, the other children huddled together in the fireplace to talk and to play games. Chief among the games was that never failing source of delight, “Simon says thumbs up.”
Outside the house the wind, blowing through the trees of the forest, rose and sank in piteous wails and moans, by turns, and the snow fell in angry, fitful blasts, and whirled and turned, eddied and drifted, as if it were a thing of life. The weather was bitter cold; but the fire on the great hearth in front of the children seemed to feel that while the grown folks were away it was its duty to be careful of the children, and to be gentle, tender, and comforting to them; so it spluttered, popped, and cracked like the sociable, amiable, and tender-hearted fire that it was. It invited the children to go near it and to take its warmth, and told, as plainly as a fire could,—and a fire can talk, not English perhaps, but a very understandable language of its own,—that it would not burn them for worlds. So, as I said, the children sat inside the huge fireplace, and cared little whether or not the cold north wind blew.
After “Simon” had grown tiresome, Liney told riddles, all of which Tom, who had heard them before, spoiled by giving the answer before the others had a chance to guess. Then Limpy propounded a few riddles, but Liney, who had often heard them, would not disappoint her brother by telling the answers. Balser noticed this, and said, “Limpy, you ought to take a few lessons in good manners from your sister.”
“Why ought I?” asked Tom, somewhat indignantly.
“Because she doesn’t tell your riddles as you told hers,” answered Balser.
“He wants to show off,” said Jim.
“No, he doesn’t,” said Liney. But she cast a grateful glance at Balser, which said, “Thank you” as plainly as if she had spoken the words. Tom hung his head, and said he didn’t like riddles anyway.
“Let’s crack some nuts,” proposed Jim, who was always hungry.