Just an aside - the wooden spills were on sale in the UK until quite recently, maybe still are if you know where to look. They could be bought in packs and were made stained in various colours. Length about six inches and about quarter of an inch wide and maybe a millimetre thick.
My grandfather always kept a small tub of them by the fire to light his pipe – he claimed that using a petrol lighter caused you to take in a lungful of petrol fumes and matches gave you a lungful of sulphur, so the spills were the clean answer for him. The tub of spills was very easy for a child to tip over, and as a child I thought that was the reason for their name! They also made handy building materials for children to play with – you could weave them for instance. Spills seemed, in those days, to have numerous uses around the house and I do still find myself wishing for some now and again.