THE CAMPFIRE · CLASSIC · 1910
August Heat
On the hottest day of the year, a painter draws a man he imagined. That evening he meets the man. He's carving a tombstone. It has the painter's name on it, and today's date.
A campfire telling of "August Heat" by W. F. Harvey (1910) Read the original free ↗
The CampfireThe openingFree
My name is James Clarence Withencroft. I'm forty years old. I'm an artist. Not a famous one. I make a modest living drawing pictures for books and magazines.
I'm writing this down because I think it's the most remarkable thing that ever happened to me. And because I think I might not get another chance.
It's August 20th. The hottest day I can remember.
This morning I sat in my studio with the windows open, trying to work. It was too hot to think. And I started sketching, without really meaning to. Just letting my hand wander.
When I looked at what I'd drawn, I was surprised. It was the best drawing I'd ever done.
It was a picture of a man in a courtroom. A prisoner in the dock. A criminal, just after the judge has sentenced him. A fat man. Bald. Enormously fat, with folds of skin hanging over his collar.
He wasn't afraid. That was the strange part. He looked as if he'd just woken up from a dream. Calm. Puzzled. Almost blank. Like a man who has done something terrible and doesn't quite remember doing it.
I didn't know anyone who looked like that. I'd invented him.
I rolled up the drawing and put it in my pocket, and went out for a walk to escape the heat.
The fire is still burning
The rest of this story is sealed.
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