"But oh," said she, "somehow, I want to learn, now, terrible!"
"Let me help you while I'm in the mountains," he replied, impulsively. "I'll be glad to help you every day."
"Would you?" she said. "I would be powerful thankful!" Her bright eyes expressed the gratitude she felt.
While they had talked a strange paradox had come about there by the fire without their notice. The long, black outcropping of rock against which they had brought the old man's blaze to life, had, instead of keeping the fire from spreading to the undergrowth, strangely permitted it to pass.
It was the girl who first discovered this. She sprang up from her place with a startled exclamation.
"Oh," said she, "th' fire is spreadin'!"
He rose quickly to his feet.