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.