He. 2 5.
And, in a few moments,
He. 1.
We usually spent our noon hour conversing with each other in this manner;
and, when it became necessary for either to leave his station, all the
flags, 1 2 3 4 5, were put out, signifying "gone."
One combination, 1 2 3 4, was, by mutual consent, reserved for a
communication of vital importance, "COME OVER!" It was never to be used
except in time of trouble, when the case would warrant leaving everything
to obey the call. We had little expectation of its ever being used. It
was simply a whim; although, like many other things, it served a serious
purpose in the end.
Not far from my father's house stood a valuable timber lot, in which he
took an especial pride. Adjoining this was an old apple-orchard, where
the limbs of several trees that had been cut down, and the prunings of
the remainder, had been heaped together in two large piles to be burned
at a favorable opportunity. One afternoon, when there was not the
slightest breath of wind, we armed ourselves, father and I, with green
pine boughs and set the brush-heaps a-fire. We had made the heap in as
moist a spot as possible, that there might be less danger of the fire
spreading through the grass. While the flame was getting under way, I
busied myself in gathering stray bits of limbs and twigs--some of them
from the edge of the woods--and throwing them on the fire.
"Be careful not to put on any hemlock branches!" shouted my father from
his heap. "The sparks may snap out into the grass!"
Almost as he spoke a live coal popped out with a loud snap and fell at my
feet, and little tongues of flame began to spread through the dead grass.
A few blows from my pine bough had smothered them, when snap! snap! snap!
went three more in different directions. As I rushed to the nearest I
remembered throwing on several dead hemlock branches, entirely forgetting
their snapping propensity.
Bestowing a few hasty strokes upon the first spot of spreading flame, I
hastened to the next and was vigorously beating that, when, glancing
behind me, I saw to my dismay that the first was blazing again. Ahead of
me was another, rapidly increasing; while the roaring, towering flame at
the heap was sputtering ominously, as if preparing to send out a shower
of sparks. And, to make matters worse, I felt a puff of wind on my face.
Terror-stricken I shouted:
"Father! The fire is running! Come quick!"
In a moment he was beside me, and for a short time we fought the flame
desperately.
"It'll reach the woods in spite of us!" he gasped, as we came together
after a short struggle. "There isn't a neighbor within half a mile, and
before you could get help it would be too late! Besides, one alone
couldn't do anything against it!"
A sudden inspiration seized me.
"I'm going to signal to Harry!" I cried. "If he sees it he'll come and,
perhaps, bring help with him!"
"Hurry!" he shouted back, and I started for the barn. The distance was
short. As I reached it I glanced over to Harry's. There were some white
spots on his barn. He was signalling and, of course, could see my signal.
Excitedly I placed the flags in 1 2 3 4, and, without waiting for an
answer, tore back across the fields to the fire. It was gaining rapidly.
In a large circle, a dozen rods across, it advanced toward the buildings
on one hand and swept toward the woods on the other. We could not conquer
it. We could only hope to hinder its progress until help should arrive.
[Illustration: IN OBEDIENCE TO THE SIGNALS.]
Fifteen minutes of desperate struggle and then, with a ringing cheer,
Harry and his father dashed upon the scene. Their arrival infused me with
new courage; and four pairs of hands and four willing hearts at length
conquered the flame, two rods from the woods!
My father sank down upon a rock, and, as he wiped the perspiration from
his smutty face, he said:
"There, boys, your signalling has saved the prettiest timber lot in the
town of Hardwick! I shall not forget it!"
Were we not justly proud?
Two days after I found upon my plate at breakfast a small package, which
contained two pretty little spy-glasses.
"Perhaps they will enable you to enlarge your 'signal code,'" was all my
father said when I thanked him.
We soon found that with the aid of the glasses we could distinguish any
color. So we made a set of blue flags, which gave us thirty more
communications by using them in place of the white ones. And, by mixing
the blue flags with the white combinations and the white with the blue
combinations, over _two hundred_ communications could be signalled. Thus
we could converse with each other by the hour.
The way we wrote down the mixed combinations was, by using a heavy figure
to represent a blue flag; as 1[2]4[5], which meant that positions 1 and 4
were occupied by white flags, 2 and 5 by blue ones.
Blue flags can be inserted in the original thirty combinations in the
following manner: 1[2], 12[3], 1[23], 123[4], 12[34], 1[2]3[4], 1[23]4,
1[234], 23[5], 2[35], 234[5], 23[4]5, 2[3]45, 2[3]4[5], 2[34]5, 23[45],
2[345], and so on.
Among the many recollections that throng my memory in connection with
this subject, is that of an incident which has caused me many a hearty
laugh since its occurrence, although at the time I did not feel
particularly amused. Harry had gone away visiting, giving me no definite
idea of when he would return. So, one drizzling, uncomfortable day, as I
was sitting rather disconsolate at my barn window, I was delighted to see
several flags appear on his barn.
Eagerly I read: