I rode as I never rode before. There were three miles to go ere I cleared the forest and got among the short grass, where I could save myself-three miles! Ten minutes nearly of intolerable heat. blinding smoke, and mortal terror. Any death but this! Drowning were pleasant; glorious to sink down into the cool, sparkling water! But to be burnt alive! I would give all my money now to be naked and penniless, rolling about in a cool, pleasant river.
The maddened, terrified horse went like the wind, but not like the hurricane-that was too swift for us. The fire had outstripped us overhead, and I could see it dimly through the choking reek, leaping and blazing a hundred yards before us among the feathery foliage, devouring it as the south wind devours the thunder-clouds. Then I could see nothing. Was I clear of the forest? Yes-I was riding over grass.
I managed to pull up the horse; and as I did so a mob of kangaroos blundered by, blinded, almost against me, noticing me no more in their terror than if I had been a stump or a stone. Soon the fire came hissing along through the grassscarcely six inches high, and I walked my horse through it; then I tumbled off on the blackened ground, and felt as if I should die.
I lay there on the hot, black ground. My head felt like a block of stone, and my neck was stiff, so that I could not move my head. My throat was swelled and dry as a sand- hill, and there was a roaring in my ears like a cataract. I thought of the cool waterfalls among the rocks far away in Devon. I thought of everything that was cold and pleasant; and then came into my head about Dives praying for a drop of water. I tried to get up, but could not, so lay down again with my head upon my arm.
It grew cooler, and the atmosphere was clearer. I got up, and, mounting my horse. turned homeward, Now I began to think about the station Could it have escaped! Impossible ! The fire would fly a hundred yards or more on such a day as this, even in a low plain. No, it must be gone! There was a great roll in the plain between me and home, so that I could see nothing of our place-all round the country was black, without a trace of vegetation. Behind me were the smoking ruins of the forest I had escaped from, where now the burnt-out trees began to thunder down rapidly, and before, to the south, I could see the fire raging miles away.
So the station is burnt, then? No! For, as I top the ridge, there it is before me, standing as of old-a bright oasis inthe desert of burnt country round. Ay! the very haystack is safe! And the paddocks? -all right!
I got home, and Jim came running to meet me.
"I was getting terribly frightened, old man," said he. "I thought you were caught. You look ten years older than you did this morning!"I tried to answer, but could not speak for drought. He ran and got me a great tumbler of water; and in the evening, having drunk about a gallon, I felt pretty well revived.
Men were sent out at once to see after the Morgans, and found them perfectly safe, but very much frightened; they had, however, saved their hut, for the fire had passed before the wind had got to its full strength.
Henry Kingsley
Author.-Henry Kingsley (1830-1876), brother of the more famous Charles Kingsley, author of Westward Ho! Henry wrote Geoffrey Hamlyn and Ravenshoe, the former of which is, by some critics, considered to be one of the best Australian novels.
General Notes.-This excerpt may tempt you to read the whole book Geoffrey Hamlyn, the latter part of which deals with life in South-eastern Australia. Why is February a likely month for bush fires? What tells you that the station was a large one? Was it a sheep or a cattle station? Where would the fire travel quickest-in forest, scrub, or grass? Devon is a country in the south-west of England; find it on the map. Discuss the causes of bush fires. Are bush fires always harmful? What are thebest preventives? Recall any poems or stories connected with bush fires. Write a real or an imaginary account of heroism in this connexion. "Dives praying for a drop of water." Dives (dy"-veez) is a Latin word meaning rich. It is used to indicate the rich man mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Luke.
LESSON 6
ROSABEllE
Oh, listen, listen, ladies gay!
No haughty feat of arms I tell; Soft is the note, and sad the layThat mourns the lovely Rosabelle.
"Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew !
And, gentle lady, deign to stay ! Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.
" The blackening wave is edged with white;
To inch and rock the sea-mews fly; The fishers have heard the water-sprite,Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh.
"Last night the gifted seer did view
A wet shroud swathed round lady gay; Then stay thee, fair, in Ravensheuch;Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?"
" "Tis not because Lord Lindesay"s heir
To-night at Roslin leads the ball, But that my lady mother thereSits lonely in her castle hall."
"Tis not because the ring they ride, And Lindesay at the ring rides well,But that my sire the wine will chide
If "tis not filled by Rosabelle. "
Drawn by W.S. Wemyss
"Lindesay at the ring rides well."
O"er Roslin, all that dreary night,
A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;
"Twas broader than the watch-fire"s light,
And redder than the bright moonbeam.
It glared on Roslin"s castled rock,
It ruddied all the copsewood glen;
" Twas seen from Dryden"s groves of oak, And seen from caverned Hawthornden.
Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslin"s chiefs uncoffined lie,Each baron, for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply.
Seemed all on fire within, around, Deep sacristy and altar"s pale; Shone every pillar foliage-bound,And glimmered all the dead men"s mail.
Blazed battlement and pinnet high, Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair-So still they blaze, when fate is nigh The lordly line of high Saint Clair.
There are twenty of Roslin"s barons bold Lie buried within that proud chapelle;Each one the holy vault doth hold;- But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!