valley of the creek before
the wind as fast as a horse could travel.

[Illustration: In the Prairie Fire]

Jack came tumbling out, and we knew instantly what to do. We both
ran a few yards ahead of the wagon and knelt in the grass, and
struck matches almost at the same moment. Jack's went out, but
mine caught, and a little flame leaped up, reached over and to both
sides, and then rolled away before the wind, spreading wider and
wider. I beat out the feeble blaze which tried to work to
windward, and ran back to the wagon, while Jack went after the
horses. The coming flames were almost upon us by this time; but
Ollie was out, and together, aided by the wind, we rolled the wagon
ahead on our little new-made oasis of safety. Jack pulled up the
pony's picket-pin, and brought her on also, while the other horses,
being loose, sought the place themselves. The flames came up to
the edge of the burned place, reached over for more grass, did not
find it, and died out. But on both sides of us they rushed on, and
soon overtook our little fire, and went on to the northwest. The
wind, first hot from the fire, now came cool and fresh, though full
of the odor of the burned grass.

"Closest call we've had," said Jack. "Yes," I replied; "been
pretty warm for us if we hadn't waked up. Our animals are doing
better; first Snoozer distinguished himself, and now I think we've
to thank Old Blacky mainly for this alarm."

We were pretty well frightened, and though we went back to bed, I
do not believe that any of us slept again that night. At the first
touch of dawn we were up. As it grew lighter, the great change in
the landscape became apparent. The gray of the prairie was turned
to the blackest of black. Only an occasional big staring buffalo
skull relieved the inkiness. Far away to the northwest we could
see a low hanging cloud of smoke where the fire was still burning.

"Blacky ought to have a hay medal," said Jack at breakfast. "If I
had any hay I'd twist him up one as big as a door-mat."

But Blacky, unlike Snoozer, seemed to have no pride in his
achievement, and he wandered all around the neighborhood trying to
find a mouthful of grass which had been missed by the fire; but he
was not successful.

"If the frozen man had been here last night he'd have been thawed
out," I said.

"Yes; and if Shaw had been here, what a good time it would have
been for him to let the fire run over his hair and clear off the
th