Middleton and
the rest rode up to his side, and demanded the reason of the halt.
"Look ye, here," returned the trapper, pointing to the mutilated
carcass of a horse, that lay more than half consumed in a little
hollow of the ground; "here may you see the power of a prairie
conflagration. The 'arth is moist, hereaway, and the grass has been
taller than usual. This miserable beast has been caught in his bed.
You see the bones; the crackling and scorched hide, and the grinning
teeth. A thousand winters could not wither an animal so thoroughly, as
the element has done it in a minute."
"And this might have been our fate," said Middleton, "had the flames
come upon us, in our sleep!"
"Nay, I do not say that, I do not say that. Not but that man will burn
as well as tinder; but, that being more reasoning than a horse, he
would better know how to avoid the danger."
"Perhaps this then has been but the carcass of an animal, or he too
would have fled?"
"See you these marks in the damp soil? Here have been his hoofs,--and
there is a moccasin print, as I'm a sinner! The owner of the beast has
tried hard to move him from the place, but it is in the instinct of
the creatur' to be faint-hearted and obstinate in a fire.
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