her feet get very cold.

When Mary Bell was dressed thus in her working frock, she was allowed
to play wherever she pleased, so that she enjoyed almost an absolute
and unbounded liberty. And yet there were some restrictions. She
must not go across the brook, for fear that she might get lost in the
woods, nor go out of sight of the house in any direction. She might
build fires upon any of the stumps or logs, but not within certain
limits of distance from the house, lest she should set the house on
fire. And she must not touch the axe, for fear that she might cut
herself, nor climb upon the wood-pile, for fear that it might fall
down upon her. With some such restrictions as these, she could do
whatever she pleased.

She was very much delighted, one morning in September, when she was
playing around the house in her working frock, at finding a great hole
or hollow under a stump, which she immediately resolved to have for
her oven. She was sitting down upon the ground by the side of it, and
she began to call out as loud as she could,

"Mary Erskine! Mary Erskine!"

But Mary Erskine did not answer. Mary Bell could hear the sound of the
spinning-wheel in the house, and she wondered why the spinner could
not hear her, when she called so loud.

She listened, watching for the pauses in the buzzing sound of the
wheel, and endeavored to call out in the pauses,--but with no better
success than before. At last she got up and walked along toward the
house, swinging in her hand a small wooden shovel, which Albert had
made for her to dig wells with in the sand on the margin of the brook.

"Mary Erskine!" said she, when she got to the door of the house,
"didn't you hear me calling for you?"

"Yes," said Mary Erskine.

"Then why did not you come?" said Mary Bell.

"Because I was disobedient," said Mary Erskine, "and now I suppose I
must be punished."

"Well," said Mary Bell. The expression of dissatisfaction and reproof
upon Mary Bell's countenance was changed immediately into one of
surprise and pleasure, at the idea of Mary Erskine's being punished
for disobeying _her_. So she said,

"Well. And what shall your punishment be?"

"What did you want me for?" asked Mary Erskine.

"I wanted you to see my oven."

"Have you got an oven?" asked Mary Erskine.

"Yes," said Mary Bell, "It is under a stump. I have got some wood, and
now I want some fire."

"Very well," said Mary Erskine, "get your fire-pan."

Mary Bell's fire