292 Tue Aroostook Woops. 


to right and left in front of the back logs, upon which rest 
two maple fore sticks of uniform size, giving a level rest for 
half a dozen cooking utensils at a time, if we wish. Beneath 
these fore sticks he has placed small, light wood, with birch 
bark, to which we touch a match, and immediately a cheerful 
fire is burning, lighting up the evergreens again for the 
evening, just as the sun is leaving them for the day. 
Our trout are dressed and lying upon a clean split beneath 
an evergreen on our left. Our pork is freshening in the pan 
which is resting upon the foresticks beside the black tea pail, 
while we occasionally lightly feed the fire beneath from the 
Commodore’s motley pile of wood upon our right. Wesee he 
has saved the larger limbs, has cut them short and left them 
handy for early coals. A snug lot of hard wood of all sizes, 
also to be placed as needed upon the hand junks, and which 
makes the jolly lasting fire. And in his large pile, so varied 
and so quickly gathered together, we notice slabs of bright 
spruce from a tree lately blown over, broken almost off and 
rived up just right for us by the winds, and its pleasant per- 
fume greets us as we pass by it. Pine knots and bark, hem- 
lock and yellow birch bark in large, thick flakes, to be broken 
as needed; dry spruce limbs, without their ends; no scraggs, 
nor blazing boughs to rush a roaring, frightful blaze upward, 
burning and browning the pretty evergreens uselessly, and 
with the sparks dropping upon the canvass, or smoking out 
the cook and causing him to mzsgwofe in his agony. But in- 
stead, and as we have said, in order to always please the cook, 
we will place upon the hand junks, as needed, the two sticks 
of hard wood, in front of good sized back logs, and from time 
to time feed underneath from the pile promiscuous, as it is this 
that gives the clean, nice fire. 
