am surprised, and there's no woman
out there with the poor little thing?"

"No," I said; "as soon as I could I started for the doctor because I
thought he was needed first. But she needs a woman--a woman that won't
look down on her, I wish--I wish I knew where there was one!"

"Jake," said she, "you've done the fair thing by me, and I'll stand by
you, and by her. I'll go to her in her trouble. I'll go now with the
doctor. And when I do the fair thing, see that you do the same. I'm not
the one to throw the first stone, and I won't. I'm going with
you, Doctor."

"What for?" said he.

"Just for the ride," she said. "I'll tell you more as we go."

They outstripped me on the return trip, for my horse was winded, and I
felt that there was no place for me in what was going on at the farm,
though what that must be was very dim in my mind.

I let my horse walk. The fire was farther off, now; but the sky, now
flecked with drifting clouds, was red with its light, and the sight was
one which I shall never see again: which I suppose nobody will ever see
again; for I do not believe there will ever be seen such an expanse of
grass as that of Iowa at that time. I have seen prairie fires in Montana
and Western Canada; but they do not compare to the prairie fires of old
Iowa. None of these countries bears such a coating of grass as came up
from the black soil of Iowa; for their climate is drier. I can see that
sight as if it were before my eyes now. The roaring came no longer to my
ears as I rode on through the night, except faintly when the breeze,
which had died down, sprang up as the fire reached some swale covered
with its ten-foot high saw-grass. Then, I could see from the top of some
rising ground the flames leap up, reach over, catch in front of the
line, kindle a new fire, and again be overleaped by a new tongue of
fire, so that the whole line became a belt of flames, and appeared to be
rolling along in a huge billow of fire, three or four rods across, and
miles in length.

The advance was not in a straight line. In some places for one reason or
another, the thickness or thinness of the grass, the slope of the land,
or the varying strength of the wind, the fire gained or lost ground. In
some places great patches of land were cut off as islands by the joining
of advanced columns ahead of them, and lay burning in triangles and
circles and hollow squares of fire, like bodies of soldiers falling
behind and formed to defend th