there the smell, but with the breeze the cloud from the
west had been rolling towards us, and the whole mountain-side was
covered with a thin haze, like a mist, only different from any mist that
I had seen. And it was this haze that smelled so strongly. Instead of
clearing away, as mist ought to do when the sun grows hot, this one
became denser as the day went on, half veiling the sun itself. And we
soon found that things--unusual things--were going on in the mountains.
The birds were flying excitedly about, and the squirrels chattering, and
everything was travelling from west to east, and on all sides we heard
the same thing.

"The world's on fire! quick, quick, quick!" screamed the squirrels as
they raced along the ground or jumped from tree to tree overhead. "Fire!
fire!" called the myrtle-robin as it passed. "Firrrrrre!" shouted the
blue jay. A coyote came limping by, yelping that the end of the world
was at hand. Pumas passed snarling and growling angrily, first at us,
and then over their shoulders at the smoke that rolled behind. Deer
plunged up to us, stood for a minute quivering with terror, and plunged
on again into the brush. Overhead and along the ground was an almost
constant stream of birds and animals, all hurrying in the same
direction.

Presently there came along another family of bears, the parents and two
cubs just about the size of Kahwa and myself, the cubs whimpering and
whining as they ran. The father bear asked my father if we were not
going, too; but my father thought not. He was older and bigger than the
other bear, and had seen a forest fire when he was a cub, and his father
then had saved them by taking to the water.

"If a strong winds gets up," he said, "you cannot escape by running
away from the fire, because it will travel faster than you. It may drive
you before it for days, until you are worn out, and there's no knowing
where it will drive you. It may drive you unexpectedly straight into
man. I shall try the water."

The others listened to what he had to say, but they were too frightened
to pay much attention, and soon went on again, leaving us to face the
fire. And I confess that I wished that father would let us go, too.

Meanwhile the smoke had been growing thicker and thicker. It made eyes
and throat smart, and poor little Kahwa was crying with discomfort and
terror. Before sunset the air was so thick that we could not see a
hundred yards in any direction, and as the twilight de