“‘Now,’ said I, ‘run for your life!’

“Grasping her hand more firmly, I started off with her at the full run.  The place was terrible, and grew worse at every step.  The road here was about fifty feet wide.  On each side was the burning forest, with a row of burned trees like fiery columns, and the moss and underbrush still glowing beneath.  To pass through that was a thing that it don’t do to look back upon.  The air was intolerable.  I wrapped my coat tighter over my head; my arms were thus exposed, and I felt the heat on my hands.  But that was nothing to the torments that I endured from trying to breathe.  Besides this, the enormous effort of keeping up a run made breathing all the more difficult.  A feeling of despair came over me.  Already we had gone half the distance, but at that moment the space seemed lengthened out interminably, and I looked in horror at the rest of the way, with a feeling of the utter impossibility of traversing it.”

[Illustration:  THE FIERY TRIAL.]

“Suddenly the lady fell headlong.  I stopped and raised her up.  My coat fell off; I felt the fiery air all round my face and head.  I called and screamed to the lady as I tried to raise her up; but she said nothing.  She was as lifeless as a stone.

“Well, my boy, I thought it was all up with me; but I, at least, could stand, though I did not think that I could take another breath.  As for the lady, there was no help for it; so I grasped her with all my strength, still keeping her head covered as well as I could, and slung her over my shoulders.  Then away I ran.  I don’t remember much after that.  I must have lost my senses then, and, what is more, I must have accomplished the rest of the journey in that semi-unconscious state.

“What I do remember is this—­a wild plunge into the water; and the delicious coolness that I felt all around restored me, and I at once comprehended all.  The lady was by my side; the shock and the cool water had restored her also.  She was standing up to her shoulders just where she had fallen, and was panting and sobbing.  I spoke a few words of good cheer, and then looked around for some place of refuge.  Just where we stood there was nothing but fire and desolation, and it was necessary to go further away.  Well, some distance out, about half-way across the river, I saw a little island, with rocky sides, and trees on the top.  It looked safe and cool and inviting.  I determined to try to get there.  Some deals were in the water by the bank, which had probably floated down from some saw-mill.  I took half a dozen of these, flung two or three more on top of them, and then told the lady my plan.  It was to float out to the island by means of this raft.  I offered to put her on it and let her float; but she refused, preferring to be in the water.

“The river was pretty wide here, and the water was shallow, so that we were able to wade for a long distance, pushing the raft before us.  At length it became deep, and then the lady held on while I floated and tried to direct the raft toward the island.  I had managed while wading to guide the raft up the stream, so that when we got into deep water the current carried us toward the island.  At length we reached it without much difficulty, and then, utterly worn out, I fell down on the grass, and either fainted away or fell asleep.