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In the dry
summer of about 1900 I had occasion to burn some bushes in the middle of a
stubble field where I had hauled an early crop of barley; a few minutes after
setting fire to the bushes I found the fire creeping across the stubble
field, fanned by a strong breeze from the southwest. I tried hard to put it
out, but it soon spread faster than I could run (the stubble being long), and
in about the same time that it takes me to write this it was right across the
field, and a wide hedge was blazing like a furnace; to my fright and horror,
I found that the other hedge also, on the opposite side of the road, had
caught fire, and in that field was a crop of oats in shock, and adjoining
that one, two fields of wheat of my neighbors, also in shock. Human help,
even if obtainable, was powerless, and the result of my act seemed likely to
be disastrous to the parish. In my dilemma I removed my hat and prayed to my
God and Father for His help; to my astonishment and relief, the wind
immediately veered round to the northwest, blowing the flames back over the
ground where the fire had already done its work. It was a simple matter to
knock out the remaining embers." -- A. E. R. Baysham |
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From:
EFFECTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS By William Moses Tidwell, Printed in U.S.A. 1943,
Beacon Hill Press Kansas City, Mo. |