-pan, was an old tin dipper with a long handle. It had
been worn out as a dipper, and so they used to let Mary Bell have it
to carry her fire in. There were several small holes in the bottom of
the dipper, so completely was it worn out: but this made it all the
better for a fire-pan, since the air which came up through the holes,
fanned the coals and kept them alive. This dipper was very valuable,
too, for another purpose. Mary Bell was accustomed, sometimes, to go
down to the brook and dip up water with it, in order to see the water
stream down into the brook again, through these holes, in a sort of a
shower.

Mary Bell went, accordingly, for her fire-pan, which she found in its
place in the open stoop or shed. She came into the house, and Mary
Erskine, raking open the ashes in the fire-place, took out two large
coals with the tongs, and dropped them into the dipper. Mary Bell held
the dipper at arm's length before her, and began to walk along.

"Hold it out upon one side," said Mary Erskine, "and then if you fall
down, you will not fall upon your fire."

Mary Bell, obeying this injunction, went out to her oven and put the
coals in at the mouth of it. Then she began to gather sticks,
and little branches, and strips of birch bark, and other silvan
combustibles, which she found scattered about the ground, and put them
upon the coals to make the fire. She stopped now and then a minute or
two to rest and to listen to the sound of Mary Erskine's spinning. At
last some sudden thought seemed to come into her head, and throwing
down upon the ground a handful of sticks which she had in her hand,
and was just ready to put upon the fire, she got up and walked toward
the house.

"Mary Erskine," said she, "I almost forgot about your punishment."

"Yes," said Mary Erskine, "I hoped that you had forgot about it,
altogether."

"Why?" said Mary Bell.

"Because," said Mary Erskine, "I don't like to be punished."

"But you _must_ be punished," said Mary Bell, very positively,
"and-what shall your punishment be?"

"How would it do," said Mary Erskine, going on, however, all the time
with her spinning, "for me to have to give you two potatoes to roast
in your oven?--or one? One potato will be enough punishment for such a
little disobedience."

"No; two," said Mary Bell.

"Well, two," said Mary Erskine. "You may go and get them in a pail out
in the stoop. But you must wash them first, before you put them in the
oven. You can