“I’ll show you how to make a fire now,” said Alex, “because you will see that we aren’t over sand or gravel in this camping place, as we are on the river.”
He scraped away the bed of spruce needles and loose soil until he got down to the moist and sandy layer, with some rocks here and there projecting through.
“That’ll do, I think,” said he. “We won’t build a big fire, and we’ll have rocks under and around it all we can. You always want to remember that a forest fire is a terrible thing, and nearly always they come from careless camp-fires. You know the earth itself burns in a forest like this. Never allow a fire to get away, and never leave it burning. These are laws which we have to follow up here, or we get into trouble.”
IX
A NIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS
“
I believe I like it up here better than I do along the river,” said John, after they finally had their little fire going.
“Yes,” remarked Rob, “you can see out farther here. The mountains are fine. See how pink they are over where the snow is—the sun from the west makes it all like a picture, doesn’t it?”