This
iron is of course put higher or lower according to the size required.

"Now I'll make you a pitcher, missie," said the good-natured man, and
with the same kind of clay, just rounding it a bit and giving a
cunning little pinch to form the spout, he made quite a pretty jug.

"Where's the handle?" asked Charley.

"Oh, that can't go on yet, sir! We must wait till the jug is dry, for
we could not press it tight enough to make it stick."

Bread-pans and washing-pans are made in exactly the same way as
flower-pots, being moulded by the hand into different forms. When the
pots and pans leave the potter's wheel they are taken, as we saw, to
dry, and great care is required to keep them at a certain heat, for if
the frost gets to them now they crack and are useless.

"Here's a comical little pot!" exclaimed Charley, holding up a wee
one.

"We call them _long Toms_," said Mr. Sands. "They are mostly used by
nursery-gardeners, because they take so little room."

"How long do they take to dry?" asked Mary, looking longingly at her
little jug.

"About a day; so we will leave your jug with the others, and go to the
kiln to see how they will be burnt to-morrow."

The kiln was round, with a big doorway, called a wicket.

The pots and pans are put inside, great care being taken that they
should not touch each other, or they would stick like loaves of bread.
Pans are first glazed with a mixture of blue or red lead. The fire is
burning below, and there are holes to allow the flames to pass upwards
amongst the pottery. When the kiln is full the wicket is bricked up
and daubed over with road-mud.

"Fancy using such dirty stuff!" said Mary.

"The manure in it makes it stick, just as hair does in mortar. Clay
would crack with the heat. So you see, dear, there's nothing so dirty
or so common that it may not be of some use in the world."

"How do you know when they are cooked enough?" asked Charley.

"I'll show you," said Mr. Sands, and he immediately led us to a small
door, which opened some way up the kiln.

"This is called the crown," said Mr. Sands.

It was a flat surface, with four holes which showed the red heat
below, and looked like little volcanoes in a good temper.

"Do you see those iron rods hanging like walking-sticks in the
furnace?" asked our guide. "Well, those are called _trials_, and at
the end of each is a lump of clay and glaze. If the glaze is burnt
enough we suppose that the whole batch is done, bu