of the fire."

"Ugh!" growled Tom. "A fat time I'd have had there if it hadn't been for
you helping me out of the oven. Cracky! I thought I was going to have my
leg burned to a cinder.

"That would have been terrible!" shuddered Nan. "What would poor Aunt
Kate have said?"

"We can't tell her anything about it," Tom hastened to say. "You see, my
two older brothers, Jimmy and Alfred, were asleep in the garret of our
house at Pale Lick, and marm thought they'd got out. It wasn't until
afterward that she learned they'd been burned up with the house. She's
never got over it."

"I shouldn't think she would," sighed Nan.

"And you see she's awfully afraid of fire, even now," said Tom.

They rattled on over the logs of the road; here and there they came to
bad places, where the water had not gone down; and the horses were very
careful in putting their hoofs down upon the shaking logs. However, it
was not much over an hour after leaving the island that they spied the
lights of Pine Camp from the top of the easy rise leading out of the
tamarack swamp.

They met Rafe with a lantern half way down the hill. Uncle Henry was
away and Aunt Kate had sent Rafe out to look for Nan, although she
supposed that the girl had remained at the Vanderwillers' until the rain
was over, and that Toby would bring her home.

There was but one other incident of note before the three of them
reached the rambling house Uncle Henry had built on the outskirts of
Pine Camp. As they turned off the swamp road through the lane that ran
past the Llewellen cottage, Rafe suddenly threw the ray of his lantern
into a hollow tree beside the roadway. A small figure was there, and it
darted back out of sight.

"There!" shouted Rafe. "I knew you were there, you little nuisance. What
did you run out of the house and follow me for, Mar'gret Llewellen?"

He jumped in and seized the child, dragging her forth from the hollow of
the big tree. He held her, while she squirmed and screamed.

"You lemme alone, Rafe Sherwood! Lemme alone!" she commanded. "I ain't
doin' nothin' to you."

"Well, I bet you are up to some monkey-shines, out this time of night,"
said Rafe, giving her a little shake. "You come on back home, Mag."

"I won't!" declared the girl.

"Yes, do, Margaret," begged Nan. "It's going to rain harder. Don't hurt
her, Rafe."

"Yah! You couldn't hurt her," said Rafe. "She's as tough as a little
pine-knot, and don't you forget it! Aren't you, Mag?"