Pull up a chair beside the heat

Or stand and warm your back and seat

And come with me down memory lane

When saws lacked motors or a chain

When all our fuel was cut from logs

For cooling, heating and scalding hogs

From early youth we understood

The many warms there were in wood

First we took a crosscut saw

Cut down a tree and watched with awe

As slowly gaining speed it fell

We sawed off logs, got warm as well.

With horses sweating and teamster too

The logs were skidded a mile or two

And when old Maud balked as she used to do

The air around turned a smoky blue.

A horse powered saw sat near our home

But it wouldn't do the work alone

Someone had to drive the team

Going around and around soon raised some steam.

Blocks of wood had to be carried away

Stored in the shed for another day

A warming job when your weight you pull

But satisfying when it was full.

Then every day before it was night

A sweat was raised splitting it right

The wood box had to be filled to the top

That chore sure kept you on the hop

If the wood in the boxes ever ran out

You'd hear Ma yell "Where is that lout?

I'm out of wood" you'd hear her holler

Sure made her hot under the collar

By the old woodstove of a winters morn

We clustered around to get warm

In evening again as the cold crept in

It was the centre of warmth for friends and kin

Now all these warms as sure as fate

Has caused the wood to dissipate

For the woodshed empty so it is plain

We'll have to get more wood again.