ured
countryman of your acquaintance, whereas coal is obtained by
miners--bad-tempered, truculent fellows that strike. Who ever heard of
a strike among coppicers? And the smoke from a wood fire!--clean and
sweet and pungent, and, against dark foliage, exquisite in colour as
the breast of a dove. The delicacy of its grey-blue is not to be
matched.

Whittier's "Snow Bound" is the epic of the wood-piled hearth.
Throughout we hear the crackling of the brush, the hissing of the sap.
The texture of the fire was "the oaken log, green, huge, and thick,
and rugged brush":--

"Hovering near,
We watched the first red blaze appear,
Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam
On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,
Until the old, rude-furnished room
_Burst flower-like into rosy bloom_.

That italicised line--my own italics--is good. For the best fire (as
for the best celery)--the fire most hearty, most inspired, and
inspiring--frost is needed. When old Jack is abroad and there is a
breath from the east in the air, then the sparks fly and the coals
glow. In moist and mild weather the fire only burns, it has no
enthusiasm for combustion. Whittier gives us a snowstorm:--

"Shut in from all the world without,
We sat the clean-winged hearth about,
Content to let the north wind roar
In baffled rage at pane and door,
While the red logs before us beat
The frost line back with tropic heat;
And ever, when a louder blast
Shook beam and rafter as it passed,
The merrier up its roaring draught
_The great throat of the chimney laughed_."

But the wood fire is not for all. In London it is impracticable; the
builder has set his canon against it. Let us, then--those of us who
are able to--build our coal fires the higher, and nourish in their
kindly light. Whether one is alone or in company, the fire is potent
to cheer. Indeed, a fire _is_ company. No one need fear to be alone if
the grate but glows. Faces in the fire will smile at him, mock him,
frown at him, call and repulse; or, if there be no faces, the smoke
will take a thousand shapes and lead his thoughts by delightful paths
to the land of reverie; or he may watch the innermost heart of the
fire burn blue (especially if there is frost in the air); or, poker in
hand, he may coax a coal into increased vivacity. This is an agreeable
diversion, suggesting the mediaeval idea of the Devil in his domain.

_