of burning well. If you succeed in getting a good burn for your fallow,
the chances are, if your plan-heaps are well made, that they will be
mostly consumed, which will save a great many blows of the axe, and
some heavy logging.



CHAPTER VIII.

A LOGGING BEE. -- LIME-BURNING. -- SHINGLING. -- ARRIVAL OF MY BROTHER-
IN-LAW. -- BIRTH OF MY SON. -- SAD JOURNEY TO DARLINGTON. -- LOSE MY
WAY. -- AM REFUSED A LIFT. -- MY BOYISH ANGER. -- MY WIFE'S DEATH. --
THE FUNERAL. -- I LEAVE DARLINGTON.

MY fallow was finished by the first week in July, but I did not put
fire to it until the first week in August, because the timber was so
green. Indeed, I did not expect the fire would run at all. I was,
however, agreeably deceived, for I got a very respectable burn, which
gave me great help.

As soon as the ground was cool enough, I made a logging Bee, at which I
had five yokes of oxen and twenty men, four men to each team. The
teamster selects a good place to commence a heap, generally against
some large log which the cattle would be unable to move. They draw all
the logs within a reasonable distance in front of the large log. The
men with hand-spikes roll them, one upon the top of the other, until
the heap is seven or eight feet high, and ten or twelve broad. All the
chips, sticks, and rubbish are then picked up and thrown on the top of
the heap. A team and four good men should log and pick an acre a day
when the burn has been good.