Oliver Onions

“ Among the grey there rose from these compact white spiral columns that twisted and rolled, terrifying in the enveloping twilight. She could hear the clamour of the birds, and even then there came to her a thankfulness that the nesting was long past, and that all were on the wing. A score of bleating sheep rushed past her ”

“ This is a most sinful thing, Jimmy; the poor birds are homeless now, as we are; but our home's near Cicely, wherever she is, eh? (He is like his mother, Cis!) —Come, dear; you shall rest again at the top....”
It was between afternoon and evening when, far to the south, they reached the Edge. They could not yet see the great western plain, but the land fell away steadily, and soon there was nothing but the immediate foreground and the far distance. The sun sank as they rested and walked again, and the heather and the sheep were dyed and flooded with gold. ”

“ Very soon the birches became shrouded, then blotted out.
When flame comes along damp heather, the bushes in advance pour out a thick white smoke and then burst into flame of themselves; with dry, the flames run forward yards at a time, with outriders of flying sparks. ”

“ You'll have to watch both behind and ahead, for you mustn't be seen and you mustn't walk into the arms of a sentry. They're a good quarter of a mile apart—they can't cover a hundred miles of country—you can get through easily. I'm going south a little way: listen where you're to wait for me. You'll cross Soyland, sighting by a large cairn you'll see on Brotherton Head. Under it, among the heather, there's an old square stone shaft and some birches. I'll be there in an hour. I'll take Jimmy with me.—Now repeat that after me. ”

“ A few yards on he fired another bush. After the weeks of drought a spark sufficed; and he advanced at a quick walk trailing his brand. When it burnt out he took another. Already from the first point of firing, the flames, of an orange scarce visible, were advancing up the hillside before the light breeze. “Variable; but there'll be more wind higher up,” he assured Jimmy; “whew, but it's dry! Too dry; we want some damp to make a smoke—a nice dense smoke to hide us. ”

“ What kind of being her fears had raised for her she did not know; what she saw was a rather undersized man with sloping shoulders and a handkerchief tucked into the back of his neck. He was eating bread and cheese, and walking aimlessly a little way and back again. ”

“ He had to draw thrice before the spark of flint and standard ignited the charge on the stone; then it caught, and he drew the heather close over it. A bright little flame licked and crackled; it spread; and a thin smoke and the pungent smell of burning heather arose. Monjoy tore up a smaller bush and held it for a moment in the blaze.
“Now we begin, Jimmy,” he said. “This is very bad for the birds, and you're not to do it when you get older, remember ”