If youre old and feeble, chopping firewoods no joke. Wandering about picking up little fragments soon exhausts the supplies near your house and you have to try further afield. It wont take long before you have to go a league to get some good bits. or then again, maybe he liked walking in the country. Or maybe he ws a bit ga-ga and walked a bit, made a pile, wandered on, made another pile, and so it goes.
   You're in good compamy, by the way, Nigel. The footnote to "Good King Wenceslas" in the Oxford Book of Carols refers to " this rather confused narrative".