cattle--droves of them! Look at the sky--see the birds!"

There were droves of cattle hurrying in every direction. The men in the
fields near Prairie Island came hurrying home.

"The prairie is on fire!" said each one, not knowing what else to say.

"Will it reach us?" asked Jasper of the harvesters.

"What is to hinder it? The wind is driving it this way. It has formed a
wall of fire that almost surrounds us."

"What can we do?" asked Jasper. The harvesters considered.

"We are safer here than elsewhere, let what will come," said one. "If
the fire sweeps the prairie, it would overtake us before we could get to
any great river, and the small creeks are dry."

The afternoon grew darker and darker. The sun went out; under the black
smoke rolled a red sea whose waves grew nearer and nearer. The children
began to cry and the women to pray. An old man came hobbling out to the
arch of the trees.

"I foretold it," said he. "The world is on fire. The Day of Judgment has
come! A time and times time, and a half."

He had been a Millerite.

"It will be here in an hour," said a harvester.

But there arose a counter-wind. The wall of fire seemed to be stayed.
The smoke columns rose to the heavens like Babel towers.

Afar, families were seen fleeing on horseback toward the bed of a creek
which they hoped to find flowing, but which had run dry.

"This is awful!" said Jasper. "It looks as though the heavens were in
flames."

He shaded his hands and looked into the open space.

"What is that?" he asked.

A black horse came running toward the island, bounding through the grass
as though impelled by spurs. As he leered, Jasper saw the form of a
human being stretched at his side. Was the form an Indian?

On came the horse. He leered again, exposing to view a yellow body and a
plumed head.

"It's an Indian," said Jasper.

The fire flattened and darkened for a time, and then rolled on again.
Animals were fleeing everywhere, plunging and bellowing, and the air was
wild and tempestuous with the cries of birds. The little animals could
be seen leaping out of the prairie grass. The earth, air, and sky
seemed alive with terror.

The black horse came plunging toward the island.

"How can a horse run that way and live?" asked Jasper. "He is bearing a
messenger. It is friendly or hostile Indian that is clinging to his
side."

Jasper bent his eyes on the plunging animal to see him leer, for
whenever the sidling motion wa