I apparently wasn't watching my fire and it went out. i have gathered wood and leaves but no one will pick up the torch. i have been playing 20 hours or so, so no gift was waiting. how do i restart the fire. i seem to be at a lost. thank you for your help

To start the fire, drop an adult villager on the fire pit after you've added wood and dry grass. (The torches are for something else altogether.)

Just make sure it isn't raining when you try and lite the fire. I made that mistake b/c it was raining when my villagers arrived on the island.

Yeah, but the game tells you what the problem is when you try to light the fire in the rain.