TAKING REINS IN HAND 



kindled the kit, and thence spread to the shed, 

 and in a moment half the house was in flame. 

 It was a picturesque sight from my window on 

 the hill; but not a pleasant one. A wild, 

 sweeping, gallant blaze, that wrapped old pow- 

 der-post timbers in its roar, and licked through 

 crashing sashes, and came crinkling through 

 the roof in a hundred wilful jets, and then 

 lashed and overlaid the whole with a tent of 

 vermilion, above which there streamed into 

 the night great, yellow, swaying pennants of 

 flame. But the burnt house is long since re- 

 placed by another. It would have been a sim- 

 ple and easy task to restore it as before ; a few 

 loads of lumber, the scheme of some country 

 joiner, and the thing were done. But I was 

 anxious to determine by actual trial how far 

 the materials which nature had provided on 

 the farm itself, could be made available. 



The needed timber could, of course, be read- 

 ily obtained from the farm wood; and from 

 the same source might also be derived the saw 

 logs for exterior covering. But from the fact 

 that pine is very much more suitable and dur- 

 able for cover, than the ordinary timber of 

 New England woods, the economy of such a 

 procedure would be very doubtful ; nor would 

 it demonstrate so palpably and unmistakably, 



93 



