Read "The Wood Fire" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(A FRAGMENT)
"THIS is a brightsome blaze you've lit good friend, to-night! " / "-Aye, it has been the bleakest spring I have felt for years, / And nought compares with cloven logs to keep alight: / I buy them bargain-cheap of the executioners, / As I dwell near; and they wanted the crosses out of sight / By Passover, not to affront the eyes of visitors.
"Yes, they're from the crucifixions last week-ending / At Kranion. We can sometimes use the poles again, / But they get split by the nails, and 'tis quicker work than mending / To knock together new; though the uprights now and then / Serve twice when they're let stand. But if a feast's impending, / As lately, you've to tidy up for the corners' ken.
"Though only three were impaled, you may know it didn't pass off / So quietly as was wont? That Galilee carpenter's son / Who boasted he was king, incensed the rabble to scoff: / I heard the noise from my garden. This piece is the one he was on. / Yes, it blazes up well if lit with a few dry chips and shroff; / And it's worthless for much else, what with cuts and stains thereon. "