wed her the two slides over the oven doors, and the others in
front, and pushed them shut. The two in the stovepipe were opened, so
the ashes could go up that way, and the covers were tightly put in their
places. "Now," she said, "you may shake."

So Margaret shook and shook until her arms were tired, but though the
fine ashes all came out, there was a handful of large coals which would
not go through the grate. These, her mother explained, were partly good,
unburned coal, and partly poor, hard bits, called clinkers. Some people
just turned them all out with the ashes and threw them away, but this
was wasteful. They must be picked over and the good bits burned again.
Margaret hunted up a big pair of old gloves of her father's, and with
these on she picked out the good pieces of coal and laid them on one
side, and then she tipped the grate by turning the stove handle quite
around, and the clinkers all fell into the ash-pan and the grate was
left empty. A big newspaper was next spread on the floor and the ash-pan
carefully drawn out over it and emptied into a scuttle kept ready for
this, so it could be easily carried to the place where the ashes were
kept, and emptied into the can there. She put the empty pan on the
paper, and with her brush swept out all the cracks inside the stove, up
and down, here and there, till no ashes were to be seen anywhere. Then
the pan was put back. The ovens were opened next, and these, too, swept
out with a clean whisk-broom, and away back in the corners they found
several bits of toast and such things all dried to a crisp, which
Bridget had not seen at all. When all the ashes were taken up and those
on the newspaper cleared away, her mother said, "Now we are ready for
the fire."

"First we put a crumpled paper on the bottom; on this we lay crossed
sticks of kindling, a good many, because this is to be a coal fire; if
we were going to burn wood we would not need so many; we must shut the
little slide in the front of the stove directly before the fire, and
open the one at the bottom, so the smoke will go up. Look and see if the
two drafts in the pipe are open; if not, the room will be full of smoke
as soon as we start the kindling. The dampers into the ovens must be
shut, too, so the fire will have nothing to distract its attention; if
we left them open it would think it had not only to burn, but to get the
ovens hot, too. Now if you are ready you can light the paper."

In a moment Margaret