A small pail, can or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop. It was used on farms for scattering grain for the chickens, slopping the hogs, as a one-handed milk bucket, and as a grain scoop
At length a little negro girl appeared, walking straight as an arrow, with a piggin full of water on her head.