It is only when harking back that one realizes the strides that have been made in house lighting. In the early days, when the country was new, the only light was firelight, candlewood, or pine torches. To be sure, there was always the punched lantern, hung on the wall ready for use at a moment's notice, but this was for outside rather than inside lighting. The earliest artificial light used by the colonist was candlewood, or pine torches. These torches were cut from trees in near-by forests, and were in reality short sections of dry, pitch-pine log from the heart of the wood, cut into thin strips, eight inches in length. The resinous quality of the wood caused these little splinters to burn like torches, hence their name. The drippings from them were caught on flat stones, which were laid just inside the fireplace; and to make a brighter light several torches were burned at one time, their steady flame, combined with the flickering blaze of the roaring logs, casting into the room just enough light by which to accomplish the simple tasks which had to be performed after nightfall. Even this rude means of lighting was not available in some homes, for it is not uncommon to read in old chronicles of lessons being learned by the light of the fire only. While such a state of affairs would be looked upon as a calamity to-day, it was not without compensation, for the merry flames of the huge logs, as they flickered and danced on the hearth, cast a cheerful light on the closed shutters, and against the brown walls, much to the delight of the little ones, who, seated on rude benches close at hand, threw hickory shavings into the fire to make it flame faster, or poked the great backlog with the long iron peel to make the sparks fly upward. Candlewood fagots were in use throughout New England until the early part of the eighteenth century, and it was customary each fall to cut enough wood to supply the family demand for a year. In some Northern states, these fagots were commonly used until 1820, while in the South they are used in a few sections even to-day, being often carried in the hand like a lantern.