as they do. When you want the fire to
burn hard you turn the handle along the pipe, and that turns the plate
the same way, and the heat can get out and make a good draft. But if you
are shutting up the fire you turn the handle across the pipe, and that
makes the plate turn straight across, too, and stops the heat from
getting out, and so the fire dies down."

"Oh, yes," said Margaret, "that's easy to understand. But what do people
do who don't have coal fires? Sometimes they have wood to burn."

"But the dampers and drafts all work the same way," said her mother.
"Wood is nice and clean to burn, and makes a quick, hot fire, but it has
to be watched all the time or it will go out. Coal makes a steady heat,
and so for most things it is better to use. Now look in and see how
things are going."

Margaret raised the covers and found a bed of bright red coals. Her
mother told her to put on coal at once; if she waited the fire would
grow still hotter,--what was called white hot,--and then it would be
spoiled. Coal must always go on before this point, but not too much,
which would be wasteful. A bright, low fire was always best.

"Now leave the drafts all open just a moment," said her mother, "to let
the coal gas burn away, and then you can shut the fire up and it will
keep just right for hours. And one thing more--never let the coal come
up near the covers of the stove, or the great heat will warp these and
spoil them; they will always have cracks around their edges, and the
heat will be wasted."

"Bridget never lets her fire go out at night," said Margaret, as she
shut the fire all up. "She likes to keep it a whole week and then let
the stove get cold and make it all over again on Saturdays."

"Yes," said her mother, "that is a very good way to do, for it does not
use up the kindling, and it takes no more coal to keep the fire all
night than to start a new one every morning. But if you ever notice how
she manages you will see that she shakes out the ashes at night, puts on
coal, and lets the gas burn off, just as we have done. Then she shuts up
the oven drafts, and the one at the bottom, and opens the one in front
of the fire as we did; in the morning she finds her fire exactly right;
all she has to do is to make it a little brighter and hotter, so she
shuts the draft in front of the coal and opens the one at the bottom, to
get the air to rush up through the coal, and sets the drafts in the pipe
open, too, so the hot ai