and corn-fields. He saw that the fields
were dry as powder.

Out on the prairie he turned and looked back on the lights of the
settlement as they glimmered among the trees. Could he apply the torch
to the dry sea of grasses around the peaceful homes?

Once, revenge would have made it a delight to his eyes to see such a
settlement in flames. But Jasper's teaching had created a new view of
life and a new conscience. He felt what the Tunker taught was true, and
that the young soldier who had spared Main-Pogue had done a nobler deed
than any act of revenge. What was that young man's motive? He pondered
over these things, and gave his pony a loose rein, and rode on under the
cool cover of the night under the moon and stars.

CHAPTER XXIII.

FOR LINCOLN'S SAKE.

"The prairie is on fire!" So cried a horseman, as he rode by the school.

It was a calm, glimmering September day. Prairie Island rose with red
and yellow and crisping leaves, like a royal tent amid a dead sea of
flowers. The prairie grass was dry, though still mingled with a green
undergrowth. Prairie chickens were everywhere, quails, and plover.

At midday a billowy cloud of smoke began to wall the eastern horizon,
and it slowly rolled forward, driven by the current of the air.

"O-o-oh!" said one of the scholars! "Look! look! What the man said is
true--the prairie _is_ on fire!"

Jasper went to the door. The blue sky had turned to an ashy hue, and the
sun was a dull red. An unnatural wind had arisen like a draft of air.

"Teacher, can we go out and look?" asked several voices.

"Yes," said Jasper, "the school may take a recess."

The pupils went to the verge of the trees, and watched the billowy
columns of smoke in the distance.

The world seemed to change. The air filled with flocks of frightened
birds. The sky became veiled, and the sun was as red as blood.

Since the great snow of 1830 but few buffaloes had been seen on the
prairie. But a dark cloud of flesh came bounding over the prairie grass,
bellowing, with low heads and erect tails. The children thought that
they were cattle at first, but they were buffaloes. They rushed toward
the trees of Prairie Island, turned, and looked behind. Then the leader
pawed the earth, and the herd rushed on toward the north.

The fire spread in a semicircle, and seemed to create a wind which
impelled it on with resistless fury.

"O-o-oh, look! look!" exclaimed another scholar. "See the horses and the