Page 172 - Real English 2024 Book 8

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Forest Fires 17

Someone dropped a burning match
Unheeded by the way;
1
It caught on fire some underbrush;
Its user did not stay.

From grass to brush, from brush to tree,
So stealthily it ran,
2
That no one ever guessed or knew
Just where that fire began.

Someone built a campfire

And failed to put it out.
A breeze came and quickened;
The embers spread about;
3
And soon the woods were blazing. 4
The fire spread and spread;
The trees that took long years to grow

Stand blackened now and dead.

Someone saw a little fire
As he was passing by.
He did not stop to put it out;
He did not even try.
1. not noticed
2. quietly and secretly He had not started it, of course;
3. live pieces of coal or wood He had no time to spare;
4. bursting into flame That it might start a forest fire
He did not even care.

Myrtle Barber Carpenter

150