"I have
seen, the year after a fire has run in the bush, a new and fresh set of
plants spring up, and even some that looked withered recover; the earth is
renewed and manured by the ashes; and it is not so great a misfortune as it
at first appears."
"But how black and dismal the burnt pine-woods look for years!" said Louis;
"I do not think there is a more melancholy sight in life than one of those
burnt pine-woods. There it stands, year after year, the black, branchless
trees pointing up to the blue sky, as if crying for vengeance against those
that kindled the fires."
"They do, indeed, look ugly," said Catharine; "yet the girdled ones look
very nearly as ill." [Footnote: The girdled pines are killed by barking
them round, to facilitate the clearing.]
At the end of two days the fires had ceased to rage, though the dim
smoke-wreaths to the westward showed where the work of destruction was
still going on.
As there was no appearance of any Indians on the lake, nor yet at the point
(Andersen's Point, as it is now called), on the other side, they concluded
the fires had possibly originated by accident,--some casual hunter or
trapper having left his camp-fire unextinguished; but as they were not
very likely to come across the scene of the conflagration, they decided
on returning back to their old home without delay; and it was with some
feeling of anxiety that they hastened to see what evil had befallen their
shanty.
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