FIRE IN THE PASTURE.
A few days after Rollo’s father gave him the instructions on the subject
of combustion which are contained in the last chapter, Rollo saw Jonas
going across the yard about the middle of the afternoon, with a lantern
in his hand. Of course Rollo called out to him with the usual question
in such cases,—
“Where are you going, Jonas?”
“I’m going out into the pasture to set some heaps on fire.”
“Well,” said Rollo, “and I’ll go too.”
Rollo ran into the parlor to ask his mother if he might go too. He
happened to meet his father just coming in at the front door. He
accordingly asked him instead.
“Yes,” said his father, “but I’m rather afraid to have the heaps set on
fire this afternoon. I am afraid that the fire will run.”
“Run?” repeated Rollo.
“Yes,” replied his father. “Tell Jonas he must be very careful not to
let the fire get away from him.”
Rollo ran off in pursuit of Jonas. When he got to the back yard again,
he saw Jonas going down the lane almost out of sight.
“Jonas!” said Rollo, calling out as loud as he could, “Jo—nas!”
So saying, he ran off after him. He clambered over the great gate which
led into the lane, because he thought that he could climb over it
quicker than open it. As soon as he reached the ground on the other
side, he ran on, calling out,—
“Jonas! Jonas!”
But Jonas did not seem to hear him. At any rate he did not stop. On the
contrary, Rollo was himself stopped, by hearing a voice behind him, as
if near the house, calling,—
“Rollo! Rollo!”
Rollo turned to see who it was. It was his cousin James, who was running
towards him with all speed. Rollo waited for him to come up. James tried
to open the gate, but could not.
“Climb over,” said Rollo.
So James climbed over, and soon reached the place where Rollo was
standing, and the two boys walked on together. James said that he had
come to play with Rollo that afternoon. Rollo said that he was very
glad, and he told James that he and Jonas were going to make some fires
in the pasture.
The heaps which Jonas was going to set on fire, were heaps of decayed
wood, consisting of old stumps, logs, and roots, and other rubbish which
he had gathered up from the ground and piled up in the pasture some
weeks before. By being left in heaps, so that the sun and air had free
access to them, they had become thoroughly dry, and were all ready to
burn with a touch. There were not a great many of the heaps, for it was
only a small part of the pasture which had such logs and stumps left in
it. The place was on the side of a deep dell, with a brook flowing
through the middle of it at the bottom. Rollo and James crossed the
brook upon a log, and then ascended the steep side of the hill, among
the heaps which Jonas was burning.
Jonas had set two heaps on fire and was just putting a burning brand
into the third heap. Rollo and James wanted Jonas to let them set the
heaps on fire. He told them that they might; and the boys accordingly
went to work, taking brands from the heaps which were already burning,
and carrying them to the others. The heaps were not only very dry, but
quite hot, on account of the influence of the rays of the sun beating
upon them; and, besides this, there was a fresh breeze blowing, which
made the fires burn up very fiercely. The fires which had been first
made soon became so hot, that the boys could not get near them to take
any brands from them.
Thus they went along from heap to heap, setting them on fire, only Jonas
succeeded in setting them on fire much faster than James and Rollo.
Jonas looked around at them at one time, and he found them endeavoring
to kindle a fire at a large heap which had been built up around a tall
stump. The stump was twice as high as Rollo’s head. Rollo and James were
kneeling down upon the ground, and blowing the end of the brand, by
which they were trying to kindle the fire. But they did not succeed.
Instead of that, the wind blew the smoke into their faces.
“Make the fire on the windward side,” said Jonas.
“Which is the windward side?” said James.
“The side that the wind blows against,” replied Jonas.
“Yes,” said Rollo, speaking to James, “we have got our fire on the wrong
side. Let us move it round to the other side, and the wind will blow it
for us.”
So they took up their brands, and put them upon the other side of the
heap. The wind fanned them a little, but did not make them blaze.
“Just put some dry pieces on,” said Jonas, “and leave them. As soon as
they get heated a little, they’ll blaze.”
The boys followed Jonas’s direction, and, after putting a few dry pieces
upon the smoking brands, they left this heap, and went to another;
though they had first to go back to one which was on fire, and get some
more brands.
“How do you set them on fire so fast, Jonas?” said Rollo.
“Why, I don’t stop to watch them,” said Jonas, “to see them burn. I put
a brand down upon the windy side of the heap, and then cover it with dry
pieces, and leave it, and let it burn up in its own time. It will burn
as soon as it has time to get heated.”
“Yes, James,” said Rollo; “my father explained it to me. When wood gets
heated above a certain point of heat, it takes fire. Sulphur takes fire
before it gets heated so hot.”
“O Jonas,” said Rollo, “why didn’t you pile up this heap?”
Rollo had come to a place where there was a long log lying upon the
ground, broken to pieces and decayed, and near it several fragments of
roots and stumps scattered around.
“O, come away, come away from there, Rollo,” said Jonas; “there is a
wasp’s nest there.”
Rollo and James ran off back towards Jonas.
“A wasp’s nest?” said James.
“Yes,” said Jonas. “I began to pile up that wood, and heard a buzzing
under the log; and I looked down, and saw some wasps buzzing about a
hole. We must burn up the wasp’s nest.”
“Well,” said Rollo, “come and do it now.”
Jonas was coming to burn up the wasp’s nest; but, as he was passing
along towards it, his attention was suddenly arrested at seeing that the
flames from one of the fires were beginning to spread rapidly upon the
ground. There was quite a large circle in the grass, which had been
burned over and blackened, and, at the outer edges of it, the flames
were still spreading rapidly,—driven by the wind.
“Look! look!” said Jonas; “our fire is running.”
“Yes,” said James; “it is burning up all the grass.”
Jonas ran to the edge of the circle, and began trampling upon the
flames, to put them out. The flames were very light, for the grass was
thin, and so the fire was easily extinguished at any one spot; but,
while Jonas was putting it out in one place, it was spreading in
another, and he could not put it out so perfectly but that it would
flame up and begin to spread again when he went to another place. James
and Rollo stood by somewhat frightened, and not knowing what to do.
[Illustration: “NO,” SAID JONAS; “WE MUST WHIP IT OUT.”—Page 63.]
“We must get some water,” said Rollo, “from the brook. I’ll go and get a
pail.”
“No, a watering-pot,” said James, “a watering-pot will be best. Let’s go
and get a watering-pot.”
“No,” said Jonas; “we must whip it out with bushes. I’ll cut some
bushes. Come down here with me.”
So Jonas ran down to the bank of the brook, where there were a number of
low fir-trees growing. Now, the leaves of the fir-tree are very small
and slender, but they stand very thick upon the branches, so that they
make a very thick and heavy foliage. Jonas cut off a branch of the
fir-tree, and gave it to Rollo. Then he cut off another for James, and
another larger for himself; and, armed with these, the boys hastened
back to the fire.
They began to whip and brush the little line of flame, and they found
that they could put it out very easily. Every blow which Jonas struck,
extinguished a line of the fire as long as his branch. Rollo and James
threshed the ground with great vigor, too, and they put out a great deal
of the fire. In fact, they soon extinguished all the flames which were
creeping up the side of the hill from this first fire, except at one
end, where it had got into some thistles, which Jonas had mowed down
some time before, and which were now lying upon the ground dry and warm,
and so thick that they made quite a hot fire. Rollo was whipping upon
these thistles, when Jonas said,—
“Stop, Rollo; it is of no use to whip such a hot fire as that; it is
only wasting your strength.”
“Then we can’t stop it,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “wait until it has gone over the thistles, and burned
them up, and then it will come to the thin grass beyond, and there we
can whip it out.”
So the boys stopped to rest while the thistles were burning, surveying,
in the meantime, the large space which had been burned over, and which
looked scorched and blackened.
“Now, all that grass is spoiled,” said Rollo.
“O, no,” said Jonas; “it hasn’t hurt the grass. It has only burned the
dry tops and the weeds. The roots of the grass are all safe, and the
ashes left by the fire will make them grow all the better next summer.”
“Then, Jonas, let’s burn the ground all over.”
“No,” said Jonas; “if so large a surface gets on fire, we can’t stop it,
till it runs into the fence, and sets that on fire,—or else gets over
into the other field.”
So saying, Jonas pointed to a large level field or pasture over the
fence, where the grass and weeds were much higher than where they were.
The grass and weeds in this other field extended back some distance to a
piece of woods; and Jonas said that, if the fire got into the woods, he
could not tell how far it would go, or what mischief it would do. “So
you see we must be sure and not let the fire get away from us,” said he.
Just then, Jonas saw that the fire was beginning to spread from another
of the heaps; and he went to it to watch it. He said he was going to let
it run a little way before he put it out, for he knew that if a piece of
the ground around the heap was once burned over, the fire would not
spread again from the heap.
So he waited, and, when the circle from that heap had become as large as
he wished, he and the boys whipped it out; and then they went back to
the first fire, which was now getting beyond the thistles, so that they
whipped that out too. Rollo and James felt much relieved, now that they
perceived that, by the aid of their fir-branches, they had the fires so
entirely under their control.
About this time, Rollo saw his father coming through the trees, on the
other side of the brook. His father had been a little afraid that Jonas
would get into difficulty with his fires, and had come out to see. He
found, however, that Jonas knew how to manage the business. He took a
branch, and began to help the three boys whip the fires, as fast as they
spread beyond the limits which they concluded to allow them.
“I didn’t know that the grass would burn so before,” said Rollo.
“It will not,” said his father, “unless it is both hot and windy. This
is an illustration of what I explained to you the other day. When grass
is heated above a certain point it takes fire. Now, when one blade of
grass is burning, it does not usually produce heat enough to raise the
next one to such a degree of heat that it will take fire; but this
afternoon it will; for now the heat of one little tuft burning is enough
to heat the next one sufficiently to cause it to take fire, because it
is already partly heated by the sun.”
“And the wind helps,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” replied his father, “the wind helps in two ways. It blows up the
grass that is burning, and makes a greater fire of it, and then it blows
the hot air and flame against the grass next to it. Thus it makes the
heat greater, and at the same time drives it against the fresh grass. I
presume this fire would not spread at all if there was no wind. You see,
in fact, that it does not spread much in any direction, except where the
wind blows it.”
“And if there _was_ a wind, and yet the grass was not hot, would it
spread then?”
“No,” said his father, “I presume not. For instance, in the evening,
when the ground and grass are cool, I don’t think the fire would run on
the ground. That is, I don’t think the heat of one row of blades would
heat the next row enough to make them take fire, unless they were partly
heated by the sun beforehand.”
“I should like to try it some windy evening,” said Rollo.
“There would be the dew in the evening also, which would tend to prevent
the fire’s running.”
By this time, all the heaps had been set on fire, and the circle of fire
which spread out from each one had been whipped out; so that there was
now not much danger that the fire would spread, and Mr. Holiday went
away. Jonas, however, said that he must stay and watch the heaps, and
Rollo and James concluded to stay with him. But, after a short time,
they became tired of poking the embers; and so Rollo proposed to James
to go with him, and help him make some charcoal.
“I have learned how they make charcoal,” said Rollo.
“Well,” said James, “I’ll go; but what good will charcoal do us?”
“Why, we can make gunpowder out of it,” said Rollo.
“Well,” said James, “I should like to make some gunpowder very much.”
So the boys went away towards the house, to get the wood to make their
charcoal.
QUESTIONS.
What objection did Mr. Holiday make at first, to having the heaps
set on fire? How was Rollo arrested when he was in pursuit of Jonas?
What were the heaps composed of which Jonas was going to set on
fire? In what condition were they in respect to inflammability? Was
there anything besides their dryness which made them particularly
inflammable at this time? Describe Rollo’s attempt to set a heap on
fire. What course did Jonas pursue? Describe the appearances
exhibited when the fire began to run. How did Rollo’s father explain
to the boys the causes which made the fire run in the grass that
afternoon more than at any other time? Describe the mode which Jonas
adopted to stop the progress of the fire in the grass. Did he always
stop it as soon as it first began to run? Why not?