The other day as I arrived at school I found the corn stems piled at the southwest corner of the school yard had been burnt to ashes. I collected them the day before and planned to carry them back with the tricycle I rode to school. At first I was dismayed at the discovery and thought there must have been someone setting them on fire behind the scenes. But wife of our headmaster made me see the real cause of the burning. The spot I had stacked the stems is a rectangular garbage dump enclosed with short walls. When I put the stems into it I saw a layer of ash left by burnt rubbish at the bottom and I also smelt a strong flavor of something charred. It was the dying embers within that flared up after being pressed by the dry leaves of the corn stems the following afternoon and  night. She saw the flames shooting high just before my arrival.