<h2><SPAN name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></SPAN>XXIX</h2>
<p class="caption">THE RELUCTANT CAMP-FIRE</p>
<p>The depressing opposite of the fire
that is the warm heart of the camp is
the pile of green or rain-soaked fuel that
in spite of all coaxing and nursing refuses
to yield a cheerful flame. Shavings
from the resin-embalmed heart of a
dead pine and scrolls of birch bark fail
to enkindle it to more than flicker and
smoke, while the wet and hungry campers
brood forlornly over the cheerless centre
of their temporary home, with watery
eyes and souls growing sick of camp life.</p>
<p>Night is falling, and the shadows of
the woods thicken into solid gloom that
teems with mysterious horrors, which
stretch their intangible claws through
the darkness to chill the backs of the
timid with an icy touch, and the silence
is terrible with unuttered howlings of
imaginary beasts.</p>
<p>Each one is ready to blame the other
for the common discomfort, and all, the<span class="pagenum">[142]</span>
high priest, who so far fails to kindle
the altar fire. He is an impostor, who
should be smothered in the reek of his
own failure. Yet, as the group regard
him with unkind glances and mutterings
of disapproval, he perseveres, feeding
the faint flame with choice morsels of
fat wood and nursing it with his breath,
his bent face and puffed cheeks now a
little lightened, now fading into gloom,
till suddenly the sullenness of the reluctant
fuel is overcome, wings of flame flutter
up the column of smoke, and the
black pile leaps into a lurid tower of
light, from whose peak a white banner
of smoke flaunts upward, saluted by the
waving boughs that it streams among.</p>
<p>Tent and shanty, familiar trees, and
moving figures with their circle of
grotesque, dancing shadows, spring into
sudden existence out of the blank darkness.
The magic touch of the firelight
dispels every sullen look, warms every
heart to genial comradeship; jokes flash
back and forth merrily, and the camp
pulses again with reawakened cheerful
life. Verily, fire worketh wonders in
divers ways.<span class="pagenum">[143]</span></p>
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