The Fire Is In.

I just watched Orson Welles’ 1952 short ghost movie Return to Glennascaul (silly but gorgeous) and was struck by the phrase “keep in” used of a fire: the narrator meets a couple of women at a crossroads, drives them to their isolated house, and is invited in for “tea, or perhaps something stronger,” and the older of the women is pleased to find that “the fire has kept in.” I’d never heard or seen that expression (that I remember), so I went to the OED, and sure enough, s.v. keep (entry from 1901): to keep in […] 3. To keep (a fire) burning: cf. in adv. II.ii.14. Also intransitive of a fire: To continue to burn. 1659 As culinary fire must be kindled and kept in by external materials. J. Arrowsmith, Armilla Catechetica 160 1711 They observe the law..which orders the Fire to be always kept in. J. Addison, Spectator No. 72. ¶7 […] 1849 The fire..keeps in well twelve hours. Journal of Royal Agricultural Society vol. 10 i. 149 1892 The fire can be kept in all night. Review of Reviews 15…