water, and so prepared to
help the men fight the flames. An hour passed. In the midst of the
crisis the riding men, the hurrying women, the encircling fire, the
billows of smoke, a flame came zigzagging down from the sky. The people
stood still. Had the last day indeed come?

Then followed a crash of thunder that shook the earth. The people fell
upon their knees. The sky darkened, and great drops of rain began to
fall.

Waubeno had checked the current of the flame that would have destroyed
the settlement in an hour, and had taught the men how to arrest an
advancing tide of flame. The people began to have hope. All was now
activity on the part of the people. Smoke filled the sky.

"There is a cloud above the smoke," said many. "God will save us all."

Waubeno came flying back again to the grove.

"It thunders," he cried. "The Rain-god is coming. If I can keep back
the fire an hour, the Rain-god will come. Hides! hides! Quick, more
hides! Ho! ho!"

New hides were provided, and he swept forth again.

The island grove was now like a vast oven. The air was stifling. The
animals laid down and rolled their tongues from their mouths. But the
fire in front did not advance. It seemed deadened. The river of flame
forked and ran in other directions, but it was stayed in front of the
grove, houses, corn-fields, and stacks, and it was the hand that had set
flames that had broken its force in the road to the settlements.

There were sudden dashes of rain, and the smoke turned into blackness
everywhere. Another flash of lightning smote the gloom, followed by a
rattling of thunder that seemed as if the spirit of the storm was
driving his chariot through the air. Then it poured as though a lake was
coming down. In an hour the fire was dead. The cloud parted, the
slanting sun came out, revealing a prairie as black as ink.

The people fled to the shelter of the houses and sheds at the approach
of the rain. The animals crowded under the trees, and the birds hid in
the boughs. After the rain-burst the people gathered together again, and
each one asked:

"Where is the Indian boy?"

He was not among them.

Had he perished?

A red sunset flamed over the prairies and the birds filled the tree-tops
with the gladness of song. It seemed to all as if the earth and sky had
come back again.

In the glare of the sunset-fire a horse and rider were seen slowly
approaching the island grove.

"It is Waubeno," said one to the other. "Th