“Pity’s sakes, Cynthy, praise God that the two of us aren’t burning up this minute with those old shingles and rafters,” cried Mrs. Ellis, joyfully.
“Oh, and Miss Allan, not one of the cats got wet even,” Doris exclaimed, laughing almost hysterically. “You should be thankful for that.”
The flames had reached the opposite shore, but while the smoke billowed across, Little River left them high and dry in the safety zone.
“I guess we’d better be making for home as quick as we can,” said Becky. Except for a little pallor around her lips, and an extra brightness to her eyes, no one could have told that she had just fought a winning battle with death. She stepped on the starter and headed toward home.
The Judge was watching anxiously, pacing up and down the long porch with Billie sitting in his chair bolstered up with pillows beside him. He had telephoned repeatedly down to Woodhow, but they were all quite as anxious now as himself. It was Billie who first caught sight of the car and its occupants.
Kit had gone out to the kitchen to start lunch going. She had refused to believe that any harm could come to Becky or anyone under her care, and at the sound of Billie’s voice, she glanced from the window and caught sight of Jean’s coat.
“Land alive, don’t hug me to death, all of you,” exclaimed Becky. “Jean, you go and telephone your mother right away and relieve her anxiety. Like enough, she thinks we’re all burned to cinders by this time, and tell her she’d better have plenty of coffee and sandwiches made up to send over to the men in the woods. All us women will have our night’s work cut out for us.”
It was the Craigs’ first experience with a country forest fire. All through the afternoon fresh relays of men kept arriving from the nearby villages, and outlying farms, ready to relieve those who had been working through the morning.
There was but little sleep for any members of the family that night. Jean never forgot the thrill of watching the fire from the upstairs windows, and when she wasn’t preparing food with the others, she spent most of the time up there until daybreak. There was a fascination in seeing that battle from afar, and realizing how the little puny efforts of a handful of men could hold in check such a devastating force. Only country dwellers could appreciate the peril of having all one owned in the world, all that was dear and precious, and comprised the word “home,” swept away in the path of the flames.
“Poor old Cynthy,” said Jean. “I’m so glad she has her cats. I shall never forget her face when she looked back. Just think of losing all the little keepsakes of a lifetime.”