Burnt Woods

In October the pond turns cold, and Thoreau builds his chimney and lights the first fire, writing about the flames with a reverence Kaag thinks has a debt underneath it. Concord had a nickname for him years before it had this book, and Kaag has made that nickname the title. The chapter's other lesson belongs to the season itself: the Japanese call it mono no aware, the beauty of what passes, and Kaag has been testing that idea lately, at close range, in the hardest school there is. House-Warming ends with a question for anyone who has ever sat up late watching a flame. Kaag won't ask it for him.