Then more than all the rest, Mary Bell liked to _bake_ a spider cake.

She used to take great pleasure in carrying the cake in her two hands to the fire-place, and laying it carefully in its place in the spider, and then setting it up before the fire to bake, lifting the spider by the end of the tail.

She also took great satisfaction afterward in watching it, as the surface which was presented toward the fire became browned by the heat.

When it was sufficiently baked upon one side it had to be turned, and then set up before the fire again, to be baked on the other side; and every part of the long operation was always watched by Mary Bell with great interest and pleasure.
Mary Erskine consented to Mary Bell's proposal in respect to breakfast, and for an hour Mary Bell was diligently employed in making the preparations.
[Illustration: MARY BELL GETTING BREAKFAST.] She put the potatoes in the bed which Mary Erskine opened for them in the ashes.

She rolled out the spider cake, and put it into the spider; she spread the cloth upon the table, and took down the plates, and the cups and saucers from the cupboard, and set them in order on the table.