ver;
pressed out; folded up and pressed out again, until it be completely
mixed, and formed into a _stiff_ and _tough dough_. This is _labour_,
mind. I have never quite liked baker's bread since I saw a great heavy
fellow, in a bakehouse in France, kneading bread with his _naked feet_!
His feet looked very _white_, to be sure: whether they were of that colour
_before he got into the trough_ I could not tell. God forbid, that I
should suspect that this is ever done _in England_! It is _labour_; but,
what is _exercise_ other than labour? Let a young woman bake a bushel once
a week, and she will do very well without phials and gallipots.

103. Thus, then, the dough is made. And, when made, it is to be formed
into a lump in the middle of the trough, and, with a little dry flour
thinly scattered over it, covered over again to be kept warm and to
ferment; and in this state, if all be done rightly, it will not have to
remain more than about 15 or 20 minutes.

104. In the mean while _the oven is to be heated_; and this is much more
than half the art of the operation. When an oven is properly heated, can
be known only by _actual observation_. Women who understand the matter,
know when the heat is right the moment they put their faces within a yard
of the oven-mouth; and once or twice observing is enough for any person of
common capacity. But this much may be said in the way of _rule_: that the
fuel (I am supposing a brick oven) should be _dry_ (not _rotten_) wood,
and not mere _brush-wood_, but rather _fagot-sticks_. If larger wood, it
ought to be split up into sticks not more than two, or two and a half
inches through. Bush-wood that is _strong_, not green and not too old, if
it be hard in its nature and has some _sticks_ in it, may do. The _woody_
parts of furze, or ling, will heat an oven very well. But the thing is, to
have a _lively_ and yet _somewhat strong_ fire; so that the oven may be
heated in about 15 minutes, and retain its heat sufficiently long.

105. The oven should be hot by the time that the dough, as mentioned in
Paragraph 103, has remained in the lump about 20 minutes. When both are
ready, take out the fire, and wipe the oven out clean, and, at nearly
about the same moment, take the dough out upon the lid of the baking
trough, or some proper place, cut it up into pieces, and make it up into
loaves, kneading it again into these separate parcels; and, as you go on,
shaking a little flour over your board, to pre