oven-flues, and they will soon be choked up, and require cleaning. Another
reason also lies in the fact that the stove-covers resting on red-hot
coals soon burn out, and must be renewed; whereas, by carefully avoiding
such chance, a stove may be used many years without crack or failure of
any sort.

If fresh heat is required for baking or any purpose after the first four
hours, let the fire burn low, then take off the covers, and with the poker
_from the bottom_ rake out all the ashes thoroughly. Then put in two or
three sticks of wood, fill as before with fresh coal, and the fire is good
for another four hours or more. If only a light fire be required after
dinner for getting tea, rake only slightly; then, fill with _cinders_, and
close all the dampers. Half an hour before using the stove, open them, and
the fire will rekindle enough for any ordinary purpose. As there is great
difference in the "drawing" of chimneys, the exact time required for
making a fire can not be given.

In using wood, the same principles apply; but of course the fire must be
fed much oftener. Grate-fires, as well as those in the ordinary stove, are
to be made in much the same way. In a grate, a blower is fastened on until
the coal is burning well; but, if the fire is undisturbed after its
renewal, it should burn from six to eight hours without further attention.
Then rake out the ashes, add coal, put on the blower a few minutes, and
then proceed as before. If an exceedingly slow fire is desired, cover the
top with cinders, or with ashes moistened with water. In making a grate or
stove fire, keep a coarse cloth to lay before it, that ashes may not spoil
the carpet; and wipe about the fire-place with a damp, coarse cloth. In
putting on coal in a sick-room, where noise would disturb the patient, it
is a good plan to put it in small paper bags or in pieces of newspaper, in
which it can be laid on silently. A short table of degrees of heat in