at. It surely
does pay."

"Gee, I hope it doesn't rain, Jack. It would be too bad if we had to
run into a storm after having good weather all this time when we were
at work."

"I don't believe it's going to rain. But it ought to, really, and it
seems selfish to wish for dry weather when the country needs rain so
badly."

"It's been a mighty dry summer, hasn't it, Jack?"

"Yes. These fires in the forests around here show that. They started
much earlier than they usually do. As a rule October is the time for
the worst fires."

"They seem to be pretty well out around here, though."

"That's because there are so many people to keep them under. But up in
the big woods, where we're going, they're likely to have bad ones, when
they start. You see a fire can get going pretty well up there before
anyone discovers it, and then it's the hardest sort of work to stop it
before it's done an awful lot of damage."

"How do those fires in the woods start, Jack?"

"That's pretty hard to say, Pete. Careless campers start a whole lot
of them. They build fires, and just leave them going when they get
through. Then the sparks begin to fly, and the fire spreads."

"They ought to be arrested!"

"They are, if anyone can prove that they really did start the fire.
But that's pretty hard to do."

"Don't the fires start other ways, too?"

"You bet they do! Sometimes the sparks from an engine will set the dry
leaves on the ground on fire, and, if there happens to be a wind, that
will start the biggest sort of a fire."

"Isn't there any way to prevent that?"

"Yes--but it's expensive and difficult. But gradually they're giving
up the coal engines in the woods, and use oil burners instead. There
are no sparks and hot cinders to drop from an oil burning engine, you
see, and it makes it much safer and cleaner, as well."

"How about when a fire just starts? That happens sometimes, doesn't
it?"

"Yes, and that's the hardest sort of a fire of all to control or to
find. Sometimes, when the leaves and branches get all wet, they will
get terribly hot when the sun blazes down on them. Then, because
they're wet, some sort of a gas develops, and the fire starts with what
they call spontaneous combustion."

"They have a fire patrol in some places, don't they?"

"Yes, and they ought to have one wherever there are woods. Out west
the government forest service keeps men who do nothing all day long but
keep on the lookout fo