THE WINTER CAMP-FIRE 



You must not be too familiar with it, 

 yet it is your friend after its own man- 

 ner, fighting away for you the creeping 

 demon of cold, and holding at bay, on 

 the rim of its glare, the wolf and the 

 panther. 



With its friendly offices are mingled 

 many elfish tricks. It boils your pot 

 just to the point you wish, then boils 

 it over and licks up the fragrant brew 

 of celestial leaf or Javanese berry. It 

 roasts or broils your meat to a turn, 

 then battles with you for it and sears 

 your fingers when you strive to snatch 

 the morsel from its jaws, and perhaps 

 burns it to a crisp before your very 

 eyes, vouchsafing but the tantalizing fra- 

 grance of the feast. 



Then it may fall into the friendliest 

 and most companionable of moods, lazily 

 burning its great billets of ancient wood 

 while you burn the Virginian weed, sing- 

 ing to you songs of summer, its tongues 

 of flame murmuring like the south wind 

 among green leaves, and mimicking the 

 chirp of the crickets and the cicada's 

 cry in the simmer of exuding sap and 

 vent of gas, and out of its smoke blos- 

 225 



