These last were very pleased that the children had come home again,
especially when Anthea had lighted the nursery fire. But, as
usual, the children treated the loving little blackbeetles with
coldness and disdain.
I wonder whether you know how to light a fire? I don't mean how to
strike a match and set fire to the corners of the paper in a fire
someone has laid ready, but how to lay and light a fire all by
yourself. I will tell you how Anthea did it, and if ever you have
to light one yourself you may remember how it is done. First, she
raked out the ashes of the fire that had burned there a week
ago--for Eliza had actually never done this, though she had had
plenty of time. In doing this Anthea knocked her knuckle and made
it bleed. Then she laid the largest and handsomest cinders in the
bottom of the grate. Then she took a sheet of old newspaper (you
ought never to light a fire with to-day's newspaper--it will not
burn well, and there are other reasons against it), and tore it
into four quarters, and screwed each of these into a loose ball,
and put them on the cinders; then she got a bundle of wood and
broke the string, and stuck the sticks in so that their front ends
rested on the bars, and the back ends on the back of the paper
balls. In doing this she cut her finger slightly with the string,
and when she broke it, two of the sticks jumped up and hit her on
the cheek.
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