"ONE OF THE MEMBERS OBSERVED HIM IN A PENSIVE POSTURE." (See page 156.)
TWO BRAVE CHILDREN.
The sky at night in the vicinity of Apple Creek, in Dakota, a few weeks ago, was red all around the horizon, and the people knew that the prairie fires were burning. Every evening, as darkness fell, the farmers saw the glare becoming more and more distinct, and during the day the smoke increased until it was nearly suffocating.
Not far from Apple Creek is the little village of Sterling, and near Sterling lived the Stevens family. Mr. Stevens was away from home on the day that the fire approached the house, and it so happened that his wife was sick in bed. Their children were a girl of eight years and a boy of eleven. The boy had heard that it was a good thing to plough a furrow across the path of the advancing flames, and about noon of the day in question he tried to protect the property in that manner. With the two-horse team and plough he cut a trench around the house and sheds, and then another trench around the stacks of unthreshed wheat. He was not strong enough to plough the trench to a great depth, but the wide line of damp earth thrown up would be hard for the flames to leap across, especially since his little sister followed him around, carrying away all trash that would add to the fury of the flames.
That night the fire was so near that the poor woman thought of getting out of bed, with the purpose of attempting to escape, but she was too ill to try such a thing. Moreover, she knew that if her husband could reach the house he would come, and she watched and prayed as the light came to her room from the crimson skies without.
When the flames, running before the wind, came down upon the Stevens' place, they licked up the fences in an instant, swept away the shocks of grain in the fields, and then rolled suddenly up to the furrows ploughed by the boy. The wheat stacks fell a prey, and numberless sparks were scattered around the house; but the brave boy and his sister ran all about, trampling out the fire wherever it caught.
The little workers were desperate, for they knew that, should the house burn, their poor mother would surely perish in her bed. They fought with brooms, shovels, and water. Wherever they could they dug up fresh earth, and for a quarter of an hour they did not pause for a single moment. Once the house caught, and the wood began to add its crackling to the rush and roar of the vast prairie fire; but the children dashed bucket after bucket of water upon the burning spot, and so put it out. They carried the day. The great fire swept past, and in its wake came the father, half frantic with joy to find that his little hero and heroine had saved their mother's life.—Examiner.