"Dead Trees Love the Fire" 161 



for generations, no one ever thinking of re- 

 planting a forest that has been cut down or 

 burned up, good firewood, of pine or oak, can 

 be bought for three dollars a cord, cut and de- 

 livered. A cord of wood will give a roaring 

 blaze every night for a month. If you cut the 

 wood yourself, as I do, you can have it almost 

 for nothing. There may come a time when 

 wood will become scarce in this neighborhood, 

 but it will not be in my day or in the day of 

 the children whom I am teaching to look upon 

 a blazing hearth as an essential feature of home. 

 By that time, man will probably get his heat 

 from stored-up sunlight, or from electricity 

 furnished by the rush of the tides or the sweep 

 of the winds. 



As we have a good hour's sail before us. one 

 of the party reads out Thoreau's chapter on 

 firewood, a wonderful study which rather 

 dwarfs all attempts to say much upon the same 

 subject. This is what I call a happiness be- 

 yond the making of any number of dollars. 

 Here we are in our staunch, safe boat, gliding 

 along with just enough sea breeze to take us 

 to that haven where we would be, my wife and 



