e nails.

"Certainly," said Dorothy. "I will go and move the flat-irons out of
the way for you."

Stuyvesant was always very particular whenever he went into the
kitchen, to treat Dorothy with great respect. He regarded the kitchen
as Dorothy's peculiar and proper dominion, and would have considered
it very rude and wrong to have been noisy in it, or to take possession
of, and use without her leave, the things which were under her charge
there. Dorothy observed this, and was very much pleased with it, and
as might naturally be expected, she was always glad to have Stuyvesant
come into the kitchen, and do any thing that he pleased there.

There was a large forestick lying across the andirons, with a burning
bed of coals below. Directly in front of these coals was a row of
flat-irons. Stuyvesant put his nails upon a long-handled shovel, and
Dorothy moved away one of the flat-irons, so that he could put the
shovel, with the nails upon it, in among the burning coals.

"Now," said he, "it will take some time for them to get hot, and I
will go and clear out the floor of the hen-house in the meanwhile."

"Well," said Phonny, "I will help you."

"Only," said Stuyvesant, turning to Dorothy, "will you look at the
nails when you take up your irons, and if you see that they get
red-hot, take the shovel out from the coals and set it down somewhere
on the hearth to cool?"

"Yes," said Dorothy, "but what are you going to heat the nails for?"

"To take the stiffness out of them," said Stuyvesant.

"To take the stiffness out?" replied Dorothy. "What do you wish to do
that for?"

"So that I can clinch them," replied Stuyvesant, "and I should like to
have you take them off the fire as soon as you see that they are
red-hot."

[Illustration: DOROTHY'S FIRE.]

"Yes," said Dorothy, "I will."

So Phonny and Stuyvesant went away, while Dorothy resumed her ironing.

They got a wheel-barrow and a rake, and went out to the hen-house.
They raked the floor all over, drawing out the old straw, sticks, &c.,
to the door. They then with a fork pitched this rubbish into the
wheel-barrow, and wheeled it out, and made a heap of it in a clear
place at some distance from the buildings, intending to set it on
fire. There were four wheel-barrow loads of it in all.

They then went into the barn and brought out a quantity of hay, and
sprinkled it all over the floor of the hen-house, which made the
apartment look extremely neat and comfortable.