OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



build our open fires. The back log must of course be in 

 its proper position close against the bricks with the ashes 

 piled up underneath it making a bed only an inch or two 

 below the andirons. This ash bed is an important point 

 and often difficult to carry out on account of the slowness 

 with which the ashes accumulate and their desirability 

 for the garden. After the back log and the front log 

 have been separated some three inches and a newspaper 

 crushed into the space, a block house of twelve-inch 

 sticks is laid upon the paper, topped by a story of kin- 

 dling. Instead of the kindling a huge bundle of fagots 

 may be used greatly to the onlooker's delight. Now 

 we are ready for the match. A line of smoke curls up- 

 ward at either end and almost instantaneously bursts into 

 flame, which, rising, catches the upper kindling, and 

 the whole construction is alight. As the small sticks are 

 consumed, their hot ashes fall upon the bigger sticks, 

 which in their turn heat and light the logs, so that there 

 is always a red bed of coals, and consequently no smok- 

 ing or lack of flame. 



How pleasing to the eye as well as to our other senses 



262 



