"Burnt out, Mr. Jenkins! What do you mean? What shall we do?"

"Do? Why, we must go to work right away and set a _back-fire_,--as quick as
we can, too. Call your girl there, and come out both of you as soon as
possible!"

Not many minutes passed before Mr. Allis reached home. He had seen the fire
at a distance, and, understanding the danger far better than his wife,
hurried home as rapidly as possible.

Poor Annie and Susie were sadly frightened. When they saw the smoke and
fire so near the house and stacks of grain, they cried as if their little
hearts would break; but there was no one to hear them, for their mother
could not be spared a moment until the danger was past. Poor children! They
soon had enough of prairie-fires, and they thought they would be very
thankful if ever they could see their father and mother and Mary alive
again. Sometimes they were almost suffocated by the smoke which the rising
wind drove into the house, and then they thought they should surely be
burned to death. Still, lonely and frightened as they were, they did not
attempt to go out. They remembered that their mother had told them not on
_any account_ to leave the house, and, like obedient children, they did as
she had told them.

It was two hours--but it seemed much longer to the poor little girls--
before their mother came in; and then they scarcely knew her, for her face
was blackened with smoke and dust, her hands were burned sadly, and the
skirt of her dress torn and burned in many places. Although they were
excited and curious, yet these good children undressed and went to bed,
helping themselves all they could, that their mother might rest, and trying
to wait until morning for all they wished to know.