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-28Sawdust Pile A pile, they say, will burn for twenty years, seething with deep heat those long years out, cool enough on top for weeds and barefoot boys. Like early ice it lures the unwary up a greening slope firm to the foot, firm and cool up to the very peak, where the crust sags, gives way, and legs, torso, and head sink to the fierce core. There are the tales: Bo Simpson’s horse, a pack of pure-blood coon hounds, Sarah Potter’s little girl all gone to a quick hell. Out here the rattler warns, lightning strikes from a growling sky: each terror is given a tongue. But the fire lies quiet in this pile, a coiled thing, tongueless and waiting, beneath the devil’s cool shell. ...

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