waterlogged. The dead leaves are as damp as grief. The charred
sticks that you find in an old fireplace are absolutely incombustible.
Do not trust the handful of withered twigs and branches that you gather
from the spruce-trees. They seem dry, but they are little better for
your purpose than so much asbestos. You make a pile of them in some
apparently suitable hollow, and lay a few larger sticks on top. Then
you hastily scratch your solitary match on the seat of your trousers and
thrust it into the pile of twigs. What happens? The wind whirls around
in your stupid little hollow, and the blue flame of the sulphur spirts
and sputters for an instant, and then goes out. Or perhaps there is
a moment of stillness; the match flares up bravely; the nearest twigs
catch fire, crackling and sparkling; you hurriedly lay on more sticks;
but the fire deliberately dodges them, creeps to the corner of the pile
where the twigs are fewest and dampest, snaps feebly a few times, and
expires in smoke. Now where are you? How far is it to the nearest match?

If you are wise, you will always make your fire before you light it.
Time is never saved by doing a thing badly.

II. THE CAMP-FIRE

In the making of fires there is as much difference as in the building of
houses. Everything depends upon the purpose that you have in view. There
is the camp-fire, and the cooking-fire, and the smudge-fire, and the
little friendship-fire,--not to speak of other minor varieties. Each of
these has its own proper style of architecture, and to mix them is false
art and poor economy.

The object of the camp-fire is to give heat, and incidentally light, to
your tent or shanty. You can hardly build this kind of a fire unless you
have a good axe and know how to chop. For the first thing that you need
is a solid backlog, the thicker the better, to hold the heat and reflect
it into the tent. This log must not be too dry, or it will burn
out quickly. Neither must it be too damp, else it will smoulder and
discourage the fire. The best wood for it is the body of a yellow birch,
and, next to that, a green balsam. It should be five or six feet long,
and at least two and a half feet in diameter. If you cannot find a
tree thick enough, cut two or three lengths of a smaller one; lay the
thickest log on the ground first, about ten or twelve feet in front of
the tent; drive two strong stakes behind it, slanting a little backward;
and lay the other logs on top of the