e thrust the book into his hands,
picked him up and ran. Her mind was a jelly, red and quaking.

She stopped momentarily after running fifty yards. "Burn the trees!" she
screamed over her shoulder. "Burn the cabin! Burn it all!" She ran on,
Ted's answering shouts beyond her comprehension.

Fatigue halted her. At the top of the rise between Cappy's farm and
their own, pain and dizziness began flowing over her in waves. She set
Richard down on the mauve soil and collapsed beside him.

When she sat up, Richard squatted just out of reach, watching curiously.
She made an effort at casualness: "Let's see what Daddy's doing back
there."

"He's doing just what you said to, Mommie!" Richard answered
indignantly.

Her men were standing together, Naomi realized. She laughed. After a
moment, Richard joined her. Then he looked for his book, found it a few
paces away, and brought it to her.

"Read to me, Mommie."

"At home," she said.

Activity at Cappy's interested her now. Wisps of smoke were licking
around the trees. A tongue of flame lapped at one while she watched.
Branches writhed. The trees were too slow-moving to escape ...

But where was Ted? What had she exposed him to, with her hysterical
orders? She held her breath till he moved within sight, standing quietly
by a pile of salvaged tools. Behind him the cabin began to smoke.

Ted wasn't afraid, then. He understood what he faced. And Richard wasn't
afraid, either, because he didn't understand.

But she? Surreptitiously Naomi pinched her hip till it felt black and
blue. That was for being such a fool. She must _not_ be afraid!

"Daddy seems to be staying there," she said. "Let's wait for him at
home, Richard."

"Are you going to make Daddy burn _our_ tree?"

She jumped as if stung. Then, consciously womanlike, she sought relief
in talk.

"What do _you_ think we should do, dear?"

"Oh, I _like_ the tree, Mommie. It's cool under there. And the tree
plays with me."

"How, Richard?"

"If I'm pilot, he's navigator. Or ship, maybe. But he's so dumb, Mommie!
I always have to tell him everything. Doesn't know what a fairy is, or
Goldilocks, or anything!"

He clutched his book affectionately, rubbing his face on it. "Hurry up,
Mommie. It'll be bedtime before you ever read to me!"

She touched his head briefly. "You can look at the book while I fix your
supper."

* * * * *

But to explain Cappy's pictures--crudely crayoned c