4 



THE RELUCTANT CAMP-FIRE 



high priest, who so far fails to kindle 

 the altar fire. He is an impostor, who 

 should be smothered in the reek of his 

 own failure. Yet, as the group regard 

 him with unkind glances and mutterings 

 of disapproval, he perseveres, feeding 

 the faint flame with choice morsels of 

 fat wood and nursing it with his breath, 

 his bent face and puffed cheeks now a 

 little lightened, now fading into gloom, 

 till suddenly the sullenness of the reluc- 

 tant fuel is overcome, wings of flame flut- 

 ter up the column of smoke, and the 

 black pile leaps inter a lurid tower of 

 light, from whose peak a white banner 

 of smoke flaunts upward, saluted by the 

 waving boughs that it streams among. 



Tent and shanty, familiar trees, and 

 moving figures with their circle of 

 grotesque, dancing shadows, spring into 

 sudden existence out of the blank dark- 

 ness. The magic touch of the firelight 

 dispels every sullen look, warms every 

 heart to genial comradeship ; jokes flash 

 back and forth merrily, and the camp 

 pulses again with reawakened cheerful 

 life. Verily, fire worketh wonders in 

 divers ways. 



142 



