58 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



tude. Cinderella, too, in the fairy tale, busies herself 

 before the hearth. 



Shakespeare evidently knew of the wood fire, and 

 we perhaps get hints of his own poaching experiences 

 in what few glimpses we have from him of the log fire 

 of those days. The song of Winter, in "Love's La- 

 bour 's Lost," is an example in point: 



" When icicles hang by the wall, 



And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, 

 And Tom bears logs into the hall, 



And milk comes frozen home in pail, 

 When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul, 

 Then nightly sings the staring owl, 



Tu-whoo ; 



Tu-whit, tu-whoo, a merry note, 

 While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." 



And again, in "Romeo and Juliet," Capulet orders: 



" Sirrah, fetch drier logs ; 

 Call Peter, he will show thee where they are." 



Implying, one might think, that there was a lot of them 

 heaped up ready for the fireplace. Further, in "The 

 Tempest," when Caliban says that he '11 no longer 

 "fetch in firing" for his master, Prospero requires it 

 of Ferdinand; and thereby hangs the tale, in one of 

 the prettiest of love matches : 



" Entir FERDINAND, bearing a log. 



Ferdinand. ' There be some sports are painful, and their labor 

 Delight in them sets off : 



I must remove 



Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up, 

 Upon a sore injunction.' 



Miranda. ' Alas ! now, pray you, 



Work not so hard : I would the lightning had 

 Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin 'd to pile ! 



