It was a fortunate thing that the root-house had been finished, as it
formed a secure storehouse for their goods, and would also be made
available as a hiding-place from the Indians, in time of need. The boys
carefully scraped away all the combustible matter from its vicinity, and
also from the house; but the rapid increase of the fire now warned them to
hurry down to join Catharine and the young Mohawk, who had gone off to the
lake shore, with such things as they required to take with them.
CHAPTER XI.
"I know a lake where the cool waves break,
And softly fall on the silver sand,
And no stranger intrudes on that solitude,
And no voices but ours disturb the strand."
IRISH SONG
The breeze had sprung up, and had already brought the fire down as far as
the creek. The swamp had long been on fire, and now the flames were leaping
among the decayed timbers, roaring and crackling among the pines, and
rushing to the tops of the cedars, springing from heap to heap of the
fallen branches, and filling the air with dense volumes of black and
suffocating smoke.
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