, little Jack played with his blocks and built
houses and set the stick of sealing-wax up for a brick chimney, and
by-and-by he played he was canning fruit, and he wished he could have a
little stove and little cans and a little stick of sealing-wax, so he
could really do it all just as she did.

Then little Jack Rabbit looked at the nice polished stove and wondered
how it would be to use that, and to build a little fire in it--just a
_little_ fire--which would make everything seem a good deal more real,
he thought, than his make-believe stove of blocks.

And pretty soon little Jack opened the stove door and looked in, and
when he stirred the ashes there were still a few live coals there, and
when he put in some shavings they blazed up, and when he put in some
pieces of old shingles and things they blazed up too, and when he put in
some of Mrs. Rabbit's nice dry wood the stove got _quite hot_!

Then little Jack Rabbit became somewhat frightened, for he had only
meant to make a very small fire, and he thought this might turn into a
big fire. Also, he remembered some things his mother had told him about
playing with fire and about _never going near a hot stove_. He thought
he'd better open the stove door a little to see if the fire was getting
too big, but he was afraid to touch it with his fingers for fear of
burning them. He had seen his mother use a stick or something to open
the stove door when it was hot, so he picked up the first thing that
came handy, which was the stick of sealing-wax. But when he touched it
to the hot door the red stick sputtered a little and left a bright red
spot on the stove door.

Then little Jack forgot all about putting up blackberries, admiring that
beautiful red spot on the shiny black stove, and thinking how nice it
would be to make some more like it, which he thought would improve the
looks of the stove a great deal.

[Illustration: AND HE MADE SOME STRIPES, TOO--MOSTLY ON TOP OF THE
STOVE]

So then he touched it again in another place and made another spot, and
in another place and made another spot, and in a lot of places and made
a lot of spots, and he made some stripes, too--mostly on top of the
stove, which was nice and smooth to mark on, though he made _some_ on
the pipe. You would hardly have known it was the same stove when he got
all through, and little Jack thought how beautiful it was and how
pleased his mother would be when she got home and _saw_ it. But then
right aw