Every fifth animal that they brought me I told them should be mine,
that I might obtain material for a hat for myself and their mother. The
boys at once agreed to this arrangement, and began the manufacture of
the traps, which were all so made that they should kill the rats at
once, for I could not bear the idea of animals being tortured or
imprisoned.
While they were thus engaged I applied myself to the manufacture of
porcelain. I first cleaned the pipe-clay and talc from all foreign
substances, and made them ready to be beaten down with water into a
soft mass, and then prepared my moulds of gypsum plaster. These
preparations were at length made, and the moulds received a thin layer
of the porcelain material. When this was partly baked, I sprinkled over
it a powder of coloured glass beads which I had crushed, and which
looked very pretty in patterns upon the transparent porcelain.
Some of my china vessels cracked with the heat of the stove, some were
very ill-shaped; but, after many failures, I succeeded in producing a
set of white cups and saucers, a cream-jug, a sugar-basin, and half a
dozen small plates.
I must allow that my china was far from perfect; the shape of some of
the vessels was faulty, and none were really transparent;
nevertheless, the general appearance gave great satisfaction, and when
the plates were filled with rosy and golden fruit resting on green
leaves, and fragrant tea filled the cups, it greatly added to the
appearance of the table.
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