Father brought in the vessel as many bricks as would serve to make an
oven by the side of our fireplace, and thus it was that we were the
first family in Plymouth who could bake bread or roast meats, as do
people in England.
This oven is built on one side of the fireplace, with a hole near the
top, for the smoke to go through. It has a door of real iron, with an
ash pit below, so that we may save the ashes for soap-making without
storing them in another place.
At first the oven was kept busily at work for the benefit of our
neighbors, being heated each day, but for our own needs it is used once
a week. Inside, a great fire of dried wood is kindled and kept burning
from morning until noon, when it has thoroughly heated the bricks. Then
the coals and ashes are swept out; the chimney draught is closed, and
the oven filled with whatsoever we have to cook. A portion of our bread
is baked in the two pans which mother owns; but the rest of it we lay
on green leaves, and it is cooked quite as well, although one is forced
to scrape a few cinders from the bottom of the loaf.
[Illustration]