Men were working in the fields as they approached the fire. They seemed indifferent to the danger that Durland feared. One boy not much older than themselves stared at the carroty head of Pete Stubbs, and laughed aloud.
"Hey, Carrots," he cried, "ain't you afraid of settin' yourself on fire?"
"You ain't so good lookin' yourself!" Pete flamed back, but Jack put a hand on his arm.
"Easy there, Pete!" he said. "We're on Scout duty now. Don't mind him."
A little further on they met an older man, who seemed to be the farmer.
"Aren't you afraid the fire may spread this way?" asked Jack, stopping to speak to him.
"Naw! Ain't never come here yet. Reckon it won't now, neither."
"There always has to be a first time for everything, you know," said Jack, secretly annoyed at the stolid indifference of the farmer, who seemed interested in nothing but the tobacco he was chewing.
"Tain't no consarn of your'n, be it?" asked the farmer, looking at them as if he had small use for boys who were not working. He forgot that Pete and Jack, coming from the city, might work almost as hard there through the week as he did on his farm, without the healthful outdoor life to lessen the weariness.
"Sure it ain't!" said Pete, goaded into replying. "We thought maybe you'd like to know there was a good chance that your place might be burnt up. If you don't care, we don't. That's a lead pipe cinch!"