in the stoop. But you must wash them first, before you put them in the
oven. You can wash them down at the brook."

"I am afraid that I shall get my fingers smutty," said Mary Bell, "at
my oven, for the stump is pretty black."

"No matter if you do," said Mary Erskine. "You can go down and wash
them at the brook."

"And my frock, too," said Mary Bell.

"No matter for that either," said Mary Erskine; "only keep it as clean
as you can."

So Mary Bell took the two potatoes and went down to the brook to wash
them. She found, however, when she reached the brook, that there was
a square piece of bark lying upon the margin of the water, and she
determined to push it in and sail it, for her ship, putting the two
potatoes on for cargo. After sailing the potatoes about for some time,
her eye chanced to fall upon a smooth spot in the sand, which she
thought would make a good place for a garden. So she determined to
_plant_ her potatoes instead of roasting them.

She accordingly dug a hole in the sand with her fingers, and put the
potatoes in, and then after covering them, over with the sand, she
went to the oven to get her fire-pan for her watering-pot, in order to
water her garden.

The holes in the bottom of the dipper made it an excellent
watering-pot, provided the garden to be watered was not too far from