l yards
around the door. This admitted a sunbeam, which, like the presence of a
good spirit, gladdened and cheered all within its reach. We intimated
to him by signs that we wanted a fire, and, without paying any respect
to what we had done, he began in his own way, with a scrap of cotton,
which he picked up from the ground, and, lighting it, blew it gently in
his folded hands till it was all ignited. He then laid it on the floor,
and, throwing aside all the material we had been using, looked around
carefully, and gathered up some little sticks, not larger than matches,
which he laid against the ignited cotton, with one point on the ground
and the other touching the fire. Then kneeling down, he encircled the
nascent fire with his two hands, and blew gently on it, with his mouth
so close as almost to touch it. A slight smoke rose above the palms of
his hands, and in a few minutes he stopped blowing. Placing the little
sticks carefully together, so that all their points touched the fire,
he went about picking up others a little larger than the first, and
laying them in order one by one. With the circumference of his hands a
little extended, he again began blowing gently; the smoke rose a little
stronger than before. From time to time he gently changed the position
of the sticks, and resumed his blowing. At length he stopped, but
whether in despair or satisfied with the result seemed doubtful. He had
a few little sticks with a languishing fire at one end, which might be
extinguished by dropping a few tears over it. We had not only gone
beyond this but had raised a large flame, which had afterward died
away. Still there was a steadiness, an assurance in his manner that
seemed to say he knew what he was about. At all events, we had nothing
to do but watch him. Making a collection of larger sticks, and again
arranging them in the same way as before, taking care not to put them
so close together as to smother the fire, with a circumference too
large for the space of his hands, but of materials so light as easily
to be thrown into confusion, he again commenced blowing, so gently as
not to disturb a single stick, and yet to the full power that the
arrangement would bear. The wood seemed to feel the influence of his
cherishing care, and a full body of smoke rose up to gladden us, and
bring tears into his eyes. With the same imperturbable industry,
unconscious of our admiration, he went on again, having now got up to
sticks as larg