Now you are ready for the hand-chunks, or andirons. These are
shorter sticks of wood, eight or ten inches thick, laid at right
angles to the backlog, four or five feet apart. Across these you
are to build up the firewood proper.
Use a dry spruce-tree, not one that has fallen, but one that is dead
and still standing, if you want a lively, snapping fire. Use a hard
maple or a hickory if you want a fire that will burn steadily and
make few sparks. But if you like a fire to blaze up at first with a
splendid flame, and then burn on with an enduring heat far into the
night, a young white birch with the bark on is the tree to choose.
Six or eight round sticks of this laid across the hand-chunks, with
perhaps a few quarterings of a larger tree, will make a glorious
fire.
But before you put these on, you must be ready to light up. A few
splinters of dry spruce or pine or balsam, stood endwise against the
backlog, or, better still, piled up in a pyramid between the hand-
chunks; a few strips of birch-bark; and one good match,--these are
all that you want. But be sure that your match is a good one. It
is better to see to this before you go into the brush. Your
comfort, even your life, may depend on it.
"AVEC CES ALLUMETTES-LA," said my guide at LAC ST. JEAN one day, as
he vainly tried to light his pipe with a box of parlour matches from
the hotel,--AVEC CES GNOGNOTTES D'ALLUMETTES ON POURRA MOURIR AU
BOIS!"
In the woods, the old-fashioned brimstone match of our grandfathers--
the match with a brown head and a stout stick and a dreadful smell--
is the best.
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