Schoolmarms | Lexicon

Every pile of firewood contains a few of those knotty, forked, cross-grained chunks of wood that are impossible to split, but too big for the stove or fireplace to swallow whole. In New England they’re often known as “old maids” or “schoolmarms — mostly, no doubt, for the associations with being left behind or passed over, but perhaps also as a sly pun on the word crotchety. Or maybe because a well-educated person can think up a way to use them. Excerpt from “The New England Sampler,” Yankee Magazine, January 1998.