The advance was not in a straight line. In some places for one reason or
another, the thickness or thinness of the grass, the slope of the land,
or the varying strength of the wind, the fire gained or lost ground. In
some places great patches of land were cut off as islands by the joining
of advanced columns ahead of them, and lay burning in triangles and
circles and hollow squares of fire, like bodies of soldiers falling
behind and formed to defend themselves against pursuers. All this
unevenness of line, with the varying surface of the lovely Iowa prairie,
threw the fire into separate lines and columns and detachments more and
more like burning armies as they receded from view.
Sometimes a whole mile or so of the line disappeared as the fire burned
down into lower ground; and then with a swirl of flame and smoke, the
smoke luminous in the glare, it moved magnificently up into sight,
rolling like a breaker of fire bursting on a reef of land, buried the
hillside in flame, and then whirled on over the top, its streamers
flapping against the horizon, snapping off shreds of flame into the air,
as triumphantly as a human army taking an enemy fort. Never again, never
again! We went through some hardships, we suffered some ills to be
pioneers in Iowa; but I would rather have my grandsons see what I saw
and feel what I felt in the conquest of these prairies, than to get up
by their radiators, step into their baths, whirl themselves away in
their cars, and go to universities.
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