“The master used to tell stories long into the night. When he began to tell them, the maid would light the fire. The maid knew all the stories and would stoke up the fire as the story began to build. When it became monotonous, she would let the fire die down and, at moments of excitement, she would put on more wood until the story ended and she allowed the fire to go out.”
“This was a welcome suggestion, for, as all travellers know, if you don’t sit by a camp fire in the evening, you have to sit by nothing in the dark...”