2.  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 towards us.

3.  “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?”

4.  “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.”

5.  “What is the danger?”

6.  “Oh, I’m afraid that we shall all be burnt up,” said John, beginning to whimper.  “What shall we do?”

7.  “Why, we must get out of it as fast as we can, and leave the house to its fate.”

8.  “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.”

9.  Behind, before, on every side, we were surrounded by a wall of fire, burning furiously within a hundred yards of us, and cutting off all possibility of retreat; for, could we have found an opening through the burning heaps, we could not have seen our way through the dense canopy of smoke; and, buried as we were in the heart of the forest, no one could discover our situation till we were beyond the reach of help.

10.  I closed the door, and went back to the parlor.  Fear was knocking loudly at my heart, for our utter helplessness destroyed all hope of our being able to effect our escape.  The girl sat upon the floor by the children, who, unconscious of the peril that hung over them, had both fallen asleep.  She was silently weeping; while the boy who had caused the mischief was crying aloud.

11.  A strange calm succeeded my first alarm.  I sat down upon the step of the door, and watched the awful scene in silence.  The fire was raging in the cedar swamp immediately below the ridge on which the house stood, and it presented a spectacle truly appalling.

12.  From out of the dense folds of a canopy of black smoke—­the blackest I ever saw—­leaped up red forks of lurid flame as high as the tree tops, igniting the branches of a group of tall pines that had been left for saw logs.  A deep gloom blotted out the heavens from our sight.  The air was filled with fiery particles, which floated even to the doorstep—­while the crackling and roaring of the flames might have been heard at a great distance.

13.  To reach the shore of the lake, we must pass through the burning swamp, and not a bird could pass over it with unscorched wings.  The fierce wind drove the flames at the sides and back of the house up the clearing; and our passage to the road or to the forest, on the right and left, was entirely obstructed by a sea of flames.  Our only ark of safety was the house, so long as it remained untouched by the fire.