When she went out now, she liked to be dressed neatly, and take pleasant walks, to see the views or to gather flowers.

In a word, though she was still in fact a child, she began to have in some degree the tastes and feelings of a woman.
"What are you going to have for breakfast ?" said Mary Bell to Mary Erskine, while they were getting up.
"What should you like ?" asked Mary Erskine in reply.
"Why I should like some roast potatoes, and a spider cake," said Mary Bell.
The spider cake received its name from being baked before the fire in a flat, iron vessel, called a spider.

The spider was so called probably, because, like the animal of that name, it had several legs and a great round body.

The iron spider, however, unlike its living namesake, had a long straight tail, which, extending out behind, served for a handle.
The spider cake being very tender and nice, and coming as it usually did, hot upon the table, made a most excellent breakfast,--though this was not the principal reason which led Mary Bell to ask for it.

She liked to _make_ the spider cake; for Mary Erskine, after mixing and preparing the material, used to allow Mary Bell to roll it out to its proper form, and put it into the spider.