The children were
lying listlessly upon the floor, and the girl and I were
finishing sunbonnets, when Mary suddenly exclaimed, "Bless us,
mistress, what a smoke!"
I ran immediately to the door, but was not able to distinguish
ten yards before me. The swamp immediately below us was on fire,
and the heavy wind was driving a dense black cloud of smoke
directly toward us.
"What can this mean?" I cried. "Who can have set fire to the
fallow?" As I ceased speaking, John Thomas stood pale and
trembling before me. "John, what is the meaning of this fire?"
"Oh, ma'am, I hope you will forgive me; it was I set fire to it,
and I would give all I have in the world if I had not done it."
"What is the danger?"
"Oh, I'm afraid that we shall all be burnt up," said John,
beginning to whimper. "What shall we do?"
"Why, we must get out of it as fast as we can, and leave the
house to its fate."
"We can't get out," said the man, in a low hollow tone, which
seemed the concentration of fear; "I would have got out of it if
I could; but just step to the back door, ma'am, and see.
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