“Oh, I’ll be all right, Uncle Joe,” she declared, laughing gaily. Then she said to Prince. “Don’t run off, Princey. You mustn’t get lost from us now, for the fire is coming.”
Joseph Stagg felt very serious as he seated himself by Amanda’s side and picked up the reins. The horse quickly retraced his steps up the hill to the tote road. As they came out into this broader path they saw the smoke pouring through it in a choking cloud. The road was like a tunnel through the thick forest, and the breeze, which was rising, drove the smoke on. Behind, there was a subdued murmur and crackling.
“Oh, Joe,” gasped Amanda, “it’s coming!”
“It surely is,” agreed the hardware merchant. “We’re in a hot corner, my girl. But trust to me——”
“Oh, I do, Joe!” she exclaimed, squeezing his arm. “I am sure you know what is best to do.”
“I’ll try to prove that so,” he said with a subdued chuckle.
“Oh, Uncle Joe!” cried Carolyn May suddenly, “can’t we get out of this awful smoke? It—it chokes me!”
“Wait,” whispered Amanda to the man. “I’ll lift her over the back of the seat. I think she had better be in my lap.”
“P’r’aps that’s so,” he agreed, and he held in the nervous Cherry for a moment till the change was accomplished.
Poor little Carolyn May’s eyes had begun to water, and she complained of a pain in her chest from swallowing the smoke.