2. The kids of that time period (Late 19th C US) were raised with open flames - unscreened fireplaces, wood stoves, coal stoves, camp fires, candles, and oil and kerosene lamps. Candles wired to Christmas trees. They understood the danger and knew their way around them. And fires and bad burns were still common.
It still gave me pause to think of a nine year old girl doing this unsupervised. What I wrote was my immediate reaction to kids doing things like that, and as I said, it was with my modern eyes. And maybe we watch our kids too much.
