"He did burn down a barn, but that’s neither here nor there..."
Currently, Canada is wrestling with the age-old problem of how to prevent forest fires. By coincidence, my forthcoming novella, COVID Disobedience, touches on this theme. Half of the novel is set in the mid-1800s, when campfires were a necessity of life.
The following is a discourse between Constable Staples, his son Cotton, and Henry David Thoreau. Father and son have just arrested Thoreau for failing to pay the poll tax. Staples is telling Thoreau about Chester, the "first-rate fellow" Thoreau is going to be locked up with:
Staples pulled his pipe out of his pocket and chuckled softly. “Chester is a first-rate fellow and a clever man.” He turned to face Thoreau. “I suspect you’ll get on quite well. He did burn down a barn, but that’s neither here nor there, as I do believe it was an accident. Something, Mr. Thoreau, I’m sure you can sympathize with.”
Thoreau raised an eyebrow and then bowed his head.
That’s when Cotton remembered where he’d heard Thoreau’s name before. Two years ago, he and another fellow had been fishing in Walden Pond. They’d built a fire in a stump near Fair Haven Bay to cook their catch, but the flames spread to the surrounding dry grass. In the end, Cotton remembers his mother saying how those “damn rascals” burned down 300 acres.
“Though it was an accident,” said Thoreau, “I think that mishap, rather than my current charge, would have more appropriately justified a night in prison."
John C.A. Manley
PS For more about the forthcoming prequel check out Henry David Thoreau and "COVID Disobedience".
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.
