heard the wood roaring well, then she took off a
cover and sprinkled on one shovel of coal and closed the top again; as
soon as she saw by peeping in that this was red, she put on another,
scattering it evenly all around, and presently she added a third
shovelful, and by this time the wood was well burned away and the coal
was hot, so she knew the fire was made.

The lesson then took up heating the ovens, which was still more
important. Her mother showed Margaret how to push in and out the
dampers over the oven doors, and explained the shutter inside which they
worked. "When we want the oven hot we pull the shutter open to let the
heat go all around the oven. When we want to cool it we shut the
shutter. The first thing to learn about a stove is this: find out
whether the damper is pushed in or pulled out to heat the ovens; you can
tell by taking off the top covers and watching, for you can see in that
way how the shutter works. Some push in and others pull out, and each
stove may be different. These push in when you want to get the oven hot.
Now, if you want to cook on top of the stove, and want all the heat up
there, of course you do not need the ovens heated, so you shut them
away. When you are all done with the fire never let it burn uselessly,
but close it up, and so keep it. The reason of the draft in the front of
the stove at the bottom, is this: the air rushes in up through the coal
and on into the chimney, and makes the fire go hard. If you want to
have it go slowly and not waste the coal, of course you must shut this
tight. The other draft, directly in front of the fire, lets the cool air
right in on the hot coals, and keeps them from burning up rapidly, so if
you want a hot fire you must shut this, and when you want the fire to go
down you must open it. Is that plain?"

"Yes," said Margaret, thoughtfully. "When I bake I make the ovens hot by
pushing in the dampers, and opening the slide at the bottom and shutting
it at the top. When I want to make something on top, I pull out the
dampers to get the ovens cool, and I open the one at the bottom and shut
the one at the top. When I'm all done I leave the oven dampers out, shut
the bottom draft in front and open the top one. Then the fire gets cool.
But what do I do to the chimney dampers?"

"Sure enough," said her mother, "we almost forgot those. You see the
queer handles on them--thin and straight; those are like the flat plates
inside the pipe that turn just