THE OPEN WOOD FIRE. 



41 



of one. First, of course, comes the huge backlog itself, 

 perhaps half a log of sugar maple, preferably green, 

 pounded and riven in two with maul and wedges, and 

 with moss, and shreds of bark, and lichens still hanging 

 to it; and now slung, back of the andirons and propped 

 up by them, against the chimney, as the reflector and 

 mainstay of the fire and the protection of the chimney 

 walls. Then a good-sized forestick will be placed 

 down in front, close to the uprights and on the trans- 

 verse shafts; and perhaps that is part of an old dead 

 oak, cut and split up now into wood. A few dry beech 

 leaves, or bean pods, or shucks, may be used as kind- 

 lings to start a blaze with, down in between the irons, 

 among the ashes, and set afire by a few live coals raked 

 and poked out from within the embers; and on top of 

 these we shall put a handful of shavings, or some chips, 

 or fragments of an old board or shingle, or a few 

 picked-up splinters from a dilapidated fence rail; while, 

 still further, upon these materials, and resting on the 

 bars, between the forestick and the backlog, we shall 

 lay several smaller pieces of wood similar to the fore- 

 stick — one, say, of ash, another of beech, a stick or 

 two pruned from the limb of an apple-tree, and some 

 dead leafy twigs of an oak, — and in and out betwixt 

 them all we shall insert some long dry slivers of hickory 

 bark, with perhaps a thick roll from the rind of a 

 beech left standing up against the backlog, or above it, 

 surmounting the whole : — and then we shall have a fire 

 worthy the name ! We shall enjoy it, then, through 

 the day, and with our fire shovel at night we shall cover 

 the remaining coals, and the ashes will keep the embers 

 until the morning. 



