by Jacob Abbott
FIRES IN THE WOODS.
All the large trees that Jonas had felled beyond the brook, he cut upinto lengths, and hauled them up into the yard, and made a great highwood-pile of them, higher than his head; but all the branches, and thesmall bushes, with all the green leaves upon them, lay about the groundin confusion. Rollo asked him what he was going to do with them. Hesaid, after they were dry, he should burn them up, and that they wouldmake a splendid bonfire.
They lay there drying a good many weeks. The leaves turned yellow andbrown, and the little twigs and sticks became gradually dry and brittle.Rollo used to walk down there often, to see how the drying went on, andsometimes he would bring up a few of the bushes, and put them on thekitchen fire, to see whether they were dry enough to burn.
At last, late in the autumn, one cool afternoon, Jonas asked Rollo to godown with him and help him pile up the bushes in heaps, for he was goingto burn them that evening. Rollo wanted very much that his cousins Jamesand Lucy should see the fires; and so he asked his mother to let him goand ask them to come and take tea there that night, and go out with themin the evening to the burning. She consented, and Rollo went. Lucypromised to come just before tea-time, and James came then, with Rollo,to help him pile the bushes up.
Jonas said that the boys might make one little pile of their own if theywished; and told them that they must first make a pile of solid sticks,and dry rotten logs as large as they could lift or roll, so as to have agood solid fire underneath, and then cover these up with brush as highas they could pile it, so as to make a great blaze. He told them alsothat they must make their pile where it would not burn any of the treeswhich he had left standing, for he had left a great many of the largeoaks, and beeches, and pines, to ornament the ground and make a shade.
Rollo and James decided to make their pile near the brook, between thebridge which Jonas made of a tree, and the old wigwam which they hadmade some time before of boughs. They got together a great heap of solidwood, as large pieces as they could lift, and at one end they put in agreat deal of birch bark, which they stripped off, in great sheets, froman old, decayed birch tree, which had been lying on the ground near, forhalf a century. When this was done, they began to pile on the bushes andbrush, taking care to leave the end where the birch bark was, open.After they had piled it up as high as they could reach. Rollo clamberedup to the top of it, and James reached the long bushes up to him, and hearranged them regularly, with the tops out. So they worked all theafternoon, and by the time they had got their pile done, they found thatJonas had thrown almost all the rest of the bushes into heaps; and thenthey went home to tea.
They found Lucy there, and they were all so eager to go to thebonfires, that they did not eat much supper. Their father told themthat, as they had so little appetite, they had better carry down somepotatoes and apples, and roast them by the fires. They thought this anexcellent plan, and ran into the store-room to get them. Their mothergave them a basket to put the potatoes and apples into, and a littlesalt folded up in a paper. They were then so impatient to go that theirparents said they might set off with Jonas, and they themselves wouldcome along very soon.
So Jonas and the three children walked on. Rollo carried the basket, andJonas a lantern; and Jonas, as he went along, made, with his penknife,some flat, wooden spoons, to eat their potatoes with. They came to thebridge, and all got safely over, though Lucy was a little afraid atfirst.
They played around there a few minutes, as the twilight was coming on;and, soon after, they saw Rollo's father and mother coming down throughthe trees, on the other side of the brook. They stopped on that side, asRollo's mother did not like to come across the bridge. Pretty soon theycalled out to Jonas to light the fires.
Jonas then took a large piece of birch bark, and touched the corner ofit to the lamp in the lantern, and when it was well on fire, he laid itcarefully on the ground. The bark began to blaze up very bright, sendingout volumes of thick smoke and dense flame, writhing, and curling, andsnapping, as it lay on the ground. The light shone brightly on the grassand sticks around.
"There," said Jonas, "that will burn some time; now you may light yourtorches from that."
"Torches?" said Rollo, "we have not got any torches."
"Have not you made any torches? O, well,--I will make you some in aminute."
So he took out his knife, and selected three long slender stems ofbushes, and trimmed them up, and cut off the tops. Then he made a littlesplit in the top end, and slipped in a piece of birch bark. Then hehanded them to the children, one to each, and said, "There are yourtorches; now you can light your fires without burning your fingers."
So they took their torches, and held the ends over the flame of thepiece of birch bark, which, however, had by this time nearly burned out.Lucy's took fire, but Rollo's and James's did not, at first; and as theypressed their torches down more and more to make them light, they onlysmothered what little flame was left, and put it out.
"O dear me!" said Rollo.
Lucy had gone a little way towards a pile; but when she saw what was thematter, she came back and said, "Here;--light it by mine." So the boysheld their torches over hers until they were all three in a brightblaze. They then carried them along, waving them in the air, andlighting pile after pile, until the whole forest seemed to be in aflame.
The children stood still a few moments, gazing on the fires, and on theextraordinary effect which the light produced upon the objects around.It was a singular scene. Flashing and crackling flames rose high fromthe heaps which were on fire, and shed a strong but unsteady light onthe trees, the ground, and the banks of the brook, and penetrated deepinto the forest on every side. Rollo called upon James and Lucy to lookat his father and mother, who were across the brook; they stood thereunder the trees, almost invisible before, but now the bright light shonestrongly upon their faces and forms, and cast upon them a clear andbrilliant illumination, which was strongly contrasted with the darkdepths of the forest behind them.
The children were silent, and stood still for a few minutes, gazing onthe scene with feelings of admiration and awe. They expected to havecapered about and laughed, but they found that they had no dispositionto do so. The enjoyment they felt was not of that kind which leadschildren to caper and laugh. They stood still, and looked silently andsoberly on the flashing flames, the lurid light, the bright redreflections on the woods, the banks, and the water,--and on the volumesof glowing smoke and sparks which ascended to the sky.
Before long, however, the light fuel upon the top of the piles wasburned up, and there remained great glowing heaps of embers, and logsof wood still flaming. These the boys began to poke about with longpoles that Jonas had cut for them, to make them burn brighter, and tosee the sparks go up. Presently they heard their father calling them.
The boys all stopped to listen.
"We are going home," said he; "we shall take cold if we stand stillhere. You may stay, however, with Jonas, only you must not sit down."
So Rollo's father and mother turned away, and walked along back towardsthe house, the light shining more and more faintly upon them, until theywere lost among the trees.
"Why do you suppose we must not sit down?" said Lucy.
"Because," said Jonas, "they are afraid you will take cold. As long asyou run about and play around the fires, you keep warm."
"O, then we will run about and play fast enough," said James. "I knowwhat I am going to do."
So he took a large flat piece of hemlock bark, which he found upon theground, and began tearing off strips of birch bark from the old tree,and piling them upon it.
"What are you going to do?" said Lucy.
"O, I am going to play steam-boat on fire," said he; and he took up thepiece of bark with the little pile of combustibles upon it, and carriedit down to the edge of the brook. Then he went back and got his torchstick, and put a fresh piece of birch bark in the split end, and lightedit, and then came back to the brook, walking slowly lest his torchshould go out.
; Lucy held his torch for him while he gently put his steam-boat on thewater; and then he lighted it with his torch, and pushed it out. Itfloated down, all blazing as it was, to the great delight of the threechildren, and astonishment of all the little fishes in the brook, whocould not imagine what the blazing wonder could be.
The children followed it along down the brook, and began to pelt it withstones, and soon got into a high frolic. But as they were very carefulnot to hit one another with the stones, nor to speak harshly or cross,they enjoyed it very much. When at last the steam-boat was fairlypelted to pieces, and the blackened fragments of the birch bark werescattered over the water, and floating away down the stream, they beganto think of roasting their corn and potatoes, which they did verysuccessfully over the remains of the fires. When they had nearlyfinished eating, Rollo suddenly exclaimed,--
"O, I will tell you what we will do; we will go and set our wigwam onfire!"
Rollo pointed to the wigwam. James and Lucy looked, and observed that ithad been dried and browned in the sun, and Rollo thought it was nolonger good for any thing as a wigwam, but would make a capital bonfire.He proposed that they should all go into it and sit down, and put atorch near the side so as to set it on fire, as if accidentally. Theywould go on talking as if they did not see it, and when the flames burstout, they would jump up and run out, crying, Fire! as people do whentheir houses get on fire.
Lucy said she should not like to do that. She should be afraid, shesaid. The sparks would fall down upon her and burn her. So the boys gavethat plan up. Then James proposed that they should make believe thatthey were savages, going to set fire to a town. The wigwam was to bethe town. They would take their torches, and all go and set it on firein several places.
"But, then, I could not help," said Lucy, "for women do not go to war."
"O yes, they do, if they are savages," said James. "We play that we aresavages, you see."
So it was all agreed to. They lighted their torches, and marched along,waving them in the air, until they came to the wigwam, and then theydanced around it, singing and shouting as they set it on fire in manyplaces on all sides. The flames spread rapidly, and flashed up high intothe air, and soon there was nothing left of the poor wigwam but a fewsmoking and blackened sticks lying on the ground.
The children then crept along over the bridge, and went towards home.There were still great beds of burning embers remaining, and in someplaces the remains of logs and stumps were blazing brightly. And thatnight, when Rollo went to bed, he lay looking out the window which wastowards the woods, and saw the light still shining among the trees, andthe smoke slowly rising from the fires, and floating away through theair.
THE HALO ROUND THE MOON;OR,LUCY'S VISIT.
"The way to ask a favor."]
THE HALO ROUND THE MOON,OR,LUCY'S VISIT.
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