Now let me tell you how to cook the things.

I was at a 'clam bake' in New England once, and I know how to make these mussels and corn taste well.
You must dig a sort of fireplace in the sand bank and build your fire in there.

When it burns away until you have a good bank of coals, you must put down on them a layer of the corn, in the shuck, then a layer of mussels, then a layer of corn, and finally cover them all up with coals and hot ashes, and leave them there for an hour or two, when they will be cooked beautifully." "But Mas' Sam," said Joe.
"Well, what is it, Joe ?" "How's we gwine to git de fire ?" "Well, how do you think, Joe ?" "I 'clare I dunno, Mas' Sam, 'thout you got some flints an' punk in your pockets." "No, I have no flints and no punk, Joe, but I'm going to get you some fire when the sun gets straight overhead." "Is you gwine to git it from de sun, Mas' Sam ?" "Yes." "What wid, Mas' Sam ?" "With water, Joe." "Wid water, Mas' Sam! You'se foolin'.

How you gwine to git fire wid water, _I'd_ like to know." "Well, wait and see.

I'm not fooling." To tell the truth, Tom was quite as much at a loss as Joe was, to know how Sam could get fire with water; but his confidence in his "big brother," as he called Sam, was too perfect to admit of a doubt or a question.