es, oh, yes!" cried Margery Burton. "I think that would be ever so
much nicer! Suppose we are a little hungry before we get our dinner? We
can stand that for once."

"I think we'll enjoy our meal more. So we'll keep on, then, if the rest
of you feel the same way."

Not a voice dissented from that proposition, either. Dolly was not the
only one who was saddened by the picture of desolation through which
they were passing. The road, of course, was deep in dust and ashes, and
the air, still filled with the smoke that rose from the smouldering
woods, was heavy and pungent, so that eyes were watery, and there was a
good deal of coughing and sneezing.

"It's a lucky thing there weren't any houses along here, isn't it?"
said Margery. "I don't see how they could possibly have been saved, do
you, Miss Eleanor?"

"There's no way that they could have saved them, unless, perhaps, by
having a lot of city fire engines, and keeping them completely covered
with water on all sides while the fire was burning. They call that a
water blanket, but of course there's no way that they could manage that
up here."

"What do you suppose started this fire, Miss Eleanor?"

"No one will ever know. Perhaps someone was walking in the woods, and
threw a lighted cigar or cigarette in a pile of dry leaves. Perhaps some
party of campers left their camp without being sure that their fire was
out."

"Just think of it--that all the trouble could be started by a little
thing like that! It makes you realize what a good thing it is that we
have to be careful never to leave a single spark behind when we're
leaving a fire, doesn't it?"

"Yes. It's a dreadful thing that people should be so careless with fire.
Fire, and the heat we get from it, is responsible for the whole progress
of the race. It was the discovery that fire could be used by man that
was back of every invention that has ever been made."

"That's why it's the symbol of the Camp Fire, isn't it?"

"Yes. And in this country people ought to think more of fire than they
do. We lose more by fire every year than any other country in the world,
because we're so terribly careless."

"What is that there, ahead of us, in the road?" asked Bessie, suddenly.
They had just come to a bend in the road, and about a hundred yards away
a group of people stood in the road.

Eleanor looked grave. She shaded her eyes with her hand, and stared
ahead of her.

"Oh," she cried, "what a shame! I remember now.