Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-17
FIREWOOD
BV John Brock

with my woodpile. There was time
when that might have worried me;
now / play around in the sun, careless as a
grasshopper, knowing that ten minutes
work will replenish it again. Think of that
ye fuel slaves who trembe to think what
would happen if the coal supply gave out!
Envy the lot of those who need no coal. For
l say unto you that if some one backed ton
of coal up to my cabin door my little tin
stove would have no need to tremble ON its
little tin legs (includng the bric.. at the left
rear cOrner) for l would continue burning
chaparral
There are those who have talked to me
of woods; earnest ecomiums are heaped
upon the pine knot; l am told that either
hickory or applewood are good for CRATES,
but oak holds longest in > stove. Personal
ly l always felt my time was worth more
than the effort of burning wood in a stove
and for a great l love best the purring maple
that crumbles suddenly into pale gray ash
when her heart has been consumed by the
flame. Though it would be unfair not to
pay tribute to the elm who has warmed gen.
erations of the middle west
But for any OF these old friends did pine
my first few days upon the mountain.
couldn't find any wood. There were few
cottOnwoOds and plenty of willow, near by,
but not on my land, and l soon came to an
end of what had washed down with the last
food. There was absolutely nothing left in
sight big enough to cut.
But when | asked a native where | could
get wood he gazed at me though l were
insane. ''Why-here, anywhere" he eX-
claimed.
But WHAT" I persisted.
why, any of it, he took in all the brush
with a gesture. "Greasewoods hottest, but
any of it'll burn. This" he held dry
head of wild buckwheat, cor this" and he
went to the far end of the category by in
dicating live oak.
I inns oiup 1 b,rrp mo tha d-x
winter stalks of queens lace quite as soon
as this little shrubbery Erigonium or the Gre
sote bush beside it, and you can dull an ak
on that flinty oak. Nevertheless, he was
right 1t will all burn. A curious fesinous sap
flows in the veins of these dwellers in the
drought; they will burn even when wet and
so holly that you can cook a meal over a
handful of twigs you would scarcely think
to light cigarette by All the sages burn
with the most delightful odor to their brittle
stalks, and the chamise, or crossword,
gives a scorching heat. For a holding fire
there are the hard red woods of the noun
tainside, harder than locust or thorn The
sumac has a resin which consumes it fast
despite its hardness, but wild lilac, wild
cherry, mountain mahogany and manZanita
hold, wonderfully. If you go to the burned
over tracts you can pick up the old dead
roots which have rooted out of the ground
and one of these the size of your two fists
viii smolder for a whole evening with
heat which seems incredible
But l had to learn to be content with
sticks smaller than my wrist; you cannot
chop the stuff, you only use what you can
break with your blow. Yes, and IS small as
my finger too, sometimes. No mountaineer
ever walks empty-hanGed if he has no
groceries or mail it is second nature for him
TO find nice root to tote companionably
home with him, or a good armful of brush.
So when big bank of fog begins to hang
above the sea, making purple background
for the distant mountain tops, l scuttle like
a trade rat for what roots / was too full
handed or too indolent to bring in until now
gather an armful of chamise that | can
break across my knee if 1 have mislaid my
ak, and | for one can hibernate in comfort
for many an hour.
And when l stand in the chill moonlight
watching the moisture sparkle from the tips
of shining leaves, straining my eyes for the
silver CLEAN of the distant ocean, l can see
by the generous stream of blue smoke from
my neighbours stovepipe that he feels the
same.
Let King Coal abdicate along with the
rest say we.