DEAD TREES LOVE THE FIRE. 147 



the children who grow up with the remem- 

 brance of that fire-light hour before their bed- 

 time will be the better for it. It will inculcate 

 in them a love of something healthy, spiritually 

 and physically. Thoreau says : " Dead trees 

 love the fire." 



Of all the woods that we burn upon our big 

 hearth in winter, the balsam pine knots are the 

 most precious, because they send out an aro- 

 matic odor through the room somewhat akin to 

 that of sandal-wood. Often, when the gale 

 does not send us a whiff of smoke backing 

 down the chimney, I take a pine knot out of 

 the fire with the tongs and wave it through the 

 room for the sake of getting that peculiar scent 

 which has always seemed full of medicinal prop- 

 erties. In order to get pine knots of the kind 

 I want, we make two or three trips every 

 summer to a wooded headland within six miles 

 of us, where for a trifle the owner has given me 

 the privilege of cutting down a lot of old pines 

 that are fit for nothing but firewood or fence 

 posts. These firewood expeditions are hailed 

 with delight by the children, because each one 

 constitutes a sort of picnic for them. Yester- 

 day was one of our firewood days, and we got 



