THE HOME FIRESIDE 



branches, and of such noble game as we 

 shall never see, — moose, elk, deer, pan- 

 ther, wolf, and bear, which are but spec- 

 tres in the shadowy forest of the past. 

 But the red tongues only roar and hiss 

 as they lick the crackling sinews of oak 

 and hickory, and tell nothing that ordi- 

 nary ears may catch. Yet one is apt to 

 fall dreaming of bygone days, and then 

 of days that may come to be spent by 

 pleasant summer waters and in the woods 

 gorgeous with the ripeness of autumn. 



So one is like to dream till he awakens 

 and finds himself left with only the dogs 

 for comrades, before the flameless em- 

 bers, deserted even by the shadows that 

 erstwhile played their grotesque pranks 

 behind him. Cover the coals as if they 

 were to kindle to-morrow's camp-fire, put 

 the yawning dogs to bed, and then to 

 bed and further dreaming. 

 i6 



