"DEAD TREES LOVE THE FIRE." 



T AM sorry for the man who cannot get pleas- 

 ^ ure out of a wood fire. One of the prom- 

 ising signs of the times, according to my view, 

 is the reappearance of the open hearth in most 

 of our modern country-houses. If the aesthetic 

 movement in house-building leaves us no other 

 memento of its passage than the big open 

 hearth and the andirons of our forefathers, we 

 can afford to be thankful, for its sins are as 

 nothing as compared to this blessing. Twenty 

 years ago, one could find all over the country 

 noble old houses in which the big fireplace had 

 been bricked up in order to substitute a grate 

 for coal, or, what is worse, a pipe-hole for a 

 stove. With the better sentiment of the last 

 few years, the fortunate people who own such 

 houses have had the bricks torn down and the 

 old andirons rescued from the attic. At my 

 own fireside I have a pair of andirons that have 

 been in use in the family for more than a hun- 

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