Rollo then spent some time in fruitless attempts to make some lighted birch bark go down into the stump, and burn there. He succeeded very well in getting pieces completely on fire; but, after they were dropped into the hole, they would not burn. Rollo could not think what the reason could be. At last he called Jonas to come and help him set the stump on fire. Jonas said that he did not think that it could be set on fire. [Illustration: "'Jonas, I have found a hollow stump here,' said Rollo, calling with a loud voice."--Page 122.] "Why not?" said Rollo. "Because," said Jonas, "it is so wet." "Yes, but, Jonas," replied Rollo, "your brush heaps burn, and why should not this stump?" "Because," said Jonas, "the stump is more solid, and the water soaks into it more in the winter and early in the spring; and it takes it much longer to dry, than it does brush and small roots, which lie open and exposed to the air." "Well, then," replied Rollo, "why does not my birch bark burn? that is dry; but as soon as I drop it down into the stump, it goes out." Jonas looked into the stump, and down around the bottom of it, and said,-- "Because there is no air." "No air?" repeated Rollo. "No," replied Jonas; "it is all close and solid around; the air cannot get in." "It can get in at the top," said Rollo. Jonas made no reply to this remark, but walked away a few steps, to a place where he had put down his axe; he took up the axe, and brought it to the stump. He immediately began to cut into it, at the bottom, as if it were a tree which he was going to fell. "O Jonas," said Rollo, "don't cut it down." "I am not going to cut it down," said Jonas; "I am only going to cut a hole into it." "What for?" asked Rollo. "To let the air in," replied Jonas. Jonas continued to cut into the side of the stump, near the ground, until he perceived that the edge of his axe went through into the hollow part. Then he cleared away the chips a little, and showed Rollo that there was an opening for the air. "Now," said he, "I presume you will be able to make sticks and birch bark burn in the stump, though you can't make the stump itself burn very well." Rollo now dropped a blazing piece of birch bark into the stump, and, to his great joy, he found that it continued blazing, after it reached the bottom. He then dropped in another piece upon it, which took fire. He then gathered some dry sticks, and put in; and, finding that the flame was increasing, he proceeded to gather all the dry and combustible matter, which he could find around, and put them in, so that in a short time he had a fine blaze, a foot above the top of the stump; and the inside of the stump itself seemed to be in flames. "Jonas," said Rollo, "it does burn." "Does it?" said Jonas; "I am glad to hear it." "But you said the stump would not burn." "You ought to wait until it is all burnt up, before you triumph over me."