From The Wayfaring Stranger

This passage tells of the Irishman Joe Moore trying to tell his girlfriend Eliza's father about what peat is.

Eliza's dad, Willard Clark, has only seen firewood, and cannot grasp about peat.

Willard Clark stopped to wipe his face with his bandana and finally spoke, “Y’all got lots of firewood over in Ireland?”

Joe felt his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. All of a sudden he was self-conscious about his brogue and the odd way he said lots of American words. “Uh, well, uh, we don’t have hardly any trees in our part of Ireland.”

This seemed to interest Mr. Clark. ”Well, if you don’t have trees what do you burn for heat and cooking?”

Now Joe Moore had a subject he felt comfortable with. ”We burn peat for our fires.”

“What is peat?”

“It’s strips of turf cut out of the bogs. We cut it with a shovel, dry it and burn it. It has a sweet smell and burns with a blue smoke.”

Mr. Clark leaned on his ax and spat, “Burning dirt. Now that’s a new one on me. Never heard of such a thing!”

Then Clark added, “You mean to tell me you come from a place with no trees? I can’t imagine a place with no trees.”

Joe felt more at ease and decided to extend the conversation a little: “Mr. Clark, I . . .” He stopped himself. He was embarrassed that he’d called him by name. They’d never even really been introduced, and it was somewhat presumptuous to call him “Mr. Clark,” especially when he knew the man would be very happy if he just disappeared off the face of the earth—at least the Ten Mile part of it.

“Uh, Mr. Clark, we don’t have trees but we got something I bet you’d like—we got mountains. You’ve never seen anything until you stand atop a mountain and look in every direction for miles. I won’t say it’s better than tall trees, but it does give you the same sense of awe.”

Willard Clark looked at him thoughtfully. Joe wasn’t sure if calling him by his name had helped or hurt. ”You know I never been very far out of these woods. Never had no reason to go. But I have always had dreams of standing on a mountain and seeing the clouds at eye level. I bet it’s something.”