Mary Bell went, accordingly, for her fire-pan, which she found in its place in the open stoop or shed.  She came into the house, and Mary Erskine, raking open the ashes in the fire-place, took out two large coals with the tongs, and dropped them into the dipper.  Mary Bell held the dipper at arm’s length before her, and began to walk along.

“Hold it out upon one side,” said Mary Erskine, “and then if you fall down, you will not fall upon your fire.”

Mary Bell, obeying this injunction, went out to her oven and put the coals in at the mouth of it.  Then she began to gather sticks, and little branches, and strips of birch bark, and other silvan combustibles, which she found scattered about the ground, and put them upon the coals to make the fire.  She stopped now and then a minute or two to rest and to listen to the sound of Mary Erskine’s spinning.  At last some sudden thought seemed to come into her head, and throwing down upon the ground a handful of sticks which she had in her hand, and was just ready to put upon the fire, she got up and walked toward the house.

“Mary Erskine,” said she, “I almost forgot about your punishment.”

“Yes,” said Mary Erskine, “I hoped that you had forgot about it, altogether.”

“Why?” said Mary Bell.

“Because,” said Mary Erskine, “I don’t like to be punished.”

“But you must be punished,” said Mary Bell, very positively, “and-what shall your punishment be?”

“How would it do,” said Mary Erskine, going on, however, all the time with her spinning, “for me to have to give you two potatoes to roast in your oven?—­or one?  One potato will be enough punishment for such a little disobedience.”

“No; two,” said Mary Bell.

“Well, two,” said Mary Erskine.  “You may go and get them in a pail out 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.