We left our dell , saying good-bye to it for ever , as the Story Girl had suggested , and we went slowly homeward through the fir woods , where a haunting , indescribable odour stole out to meet us . `` There is magic in the scent of dying fir , '' Uncle Blair was saying aloud to himself , as if forgetting he was not quite alone . `` It gets into our blood like some rare , subtly-compounded wine , and thrills us with unutterable sweetnesses , as of recollections from some other fairer life , lived in some happier star . Compared to it , all other scents seem heavy and earth-born , luring to the valleys instead of the heights . But the tang of the fir summons onward and upward to some ` far-off , divine event ' -- some spiritual peak of attainment whence we shall see with unfaltering , unclouded vision the spires of some aerial City Beautiful , or the fulfilment of some fair , fadeless land of promise . '' He was silent for a moment , then added in a lower tone , `` Felicity , you loved the scent of dying fir . If you were here tonight with me -- Felicity -- Felicity ! '' Something in his voice made me suddenly sad . I was comforted when I felt the Story Girl slip her hand into mine . So we walked out of the woods into the autumn dusk . We were in a little valley . Half-way up the opposite slope a brush fire was burning clearly and steadily in a maple grove . There was something indescribably alluring in that fire , glowing so redly against the dark background of forest and twilit hill . `` Let us go to it , '' cried Uncle Blair , gaily , casting aside his sorrowful mood and catching our hands . `` A wood fire at night has a fascination not to be resisted by those of mortal race . Hasten -- we must not lose time . '' `` Oh , it will burn a long time yet , '' I gasped , for Uncle Blair was whisking us up the hill at a merciless rate . `` You ca n't be sure . It may have been lighted by some good , honest farmer-man , bent on tidying up his sugar orchard , but it may also , for anything we know , have been kindled by no earthly woodman as a beacon or summons to the tribes of fairyland , and may vanish away if we tarry . '' It did not vanish and presently we found ourselves in the grove .
It was very beautiful ; the fire burned with a clear , steady glow and a soft crackle ; the long arcades beneath the trees were illuminated with a rosy radiance , beyond which lurked companies XXXXX gray and purple shadows .
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