ything's _so_ dry!
I shall be glad when it rains again."

"It _is_ dry," Mr. Bear agreed. "But don't worry. It's like this every
fall." And he went slowly down the mountain.

Cuffy and Silkie were playing together that morning. Cuffy was teaching
Silkie to box, though, to be sure, he knew very little about boxing. But
he found it easy to tap Silkie on the nose. And he had tapped her so
hard that Mrs. Bear heard a sound very much like quarreling; and she
came to the door to see what was the trouble.

Mrs. Bear was just going to call to her children, when she noticed a
peculiar odor in the air. And she stood quite still, and sniffed, just
as Cuffy had when he smelled the haymakers' lunch. You remember that the
more Cuffy sniffed, the less alarmed he had been. But it was different
with Mrs. Bear. The longer she stood there, with her nose twitching, and
snuffing up the air, the more uneasy she became. And pretty soon she saw
something that gave her a great start.

It was something white that Mrs. Bear saw, and it hung over the
tree-tops; and where the wind had caught it it was spun out thin, like a
veil.

It was exactly what Mrs. Bear had feared--it was smoke! The forest was
afire! And Mrs. Bear was very much alarmed. She sent Cuffy and Silkie
into the house, because she wanted to be sure that they wouldn't wander
off into the woods. And then their mother stood in the doorway and
watched. She was looking for Mr. Bear. While she waited there the smoke
kept rising more and more until there were great clouds of it; and at
last Mrs. Bear could see red flames licking up to the tops of the trees.

Several deer came bounding past, and a great number of rabbits and
squirrels. And then followed other animals that couldn't run so
fast--such as raccoons, and skunks, and woodchucks. Not for years had
Mrs. Bear seen so many of the forest-people--and they were all so
frightened, and in such a hurry to get away from the fire, that not one
of them noticed Mrs. Bear as she stood in her doorway.

"Where are they going, Mother?" It was Cuffy who asked the question. He
had crept up behind his mother and had been looking at the strange sight
for some time.

"They're going over to the lake, on the other side of the mountain,"
Mrs. Bear said.

"Are they going fishing?" Cuffy inquired.

Mrs. Bear shook her head. And then Cuffy squeezed past her and saw what
was happening.

"Oh-h, hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted.

His mother looked at h