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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: ashes from your pipe on a fallen log; you toss the end of a match
into a patch of grass, green on top, but dry as punk underneath; you
scatter the dead brands of an old fire among the moss,--a
conflagration is under way before you know it.
A fire in the woods is one thing; a comfort and a joy. Fire in the
woods is another thing; a terror, an uncontrollable fury, a burning
shame.
But the lighting up of a proper fire, kindly, approachable,
serviceable, docile, is a work of intelligence. If, perhaps, you
have to do it in the rain, with a single match, it requires no
little art and skill.
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