"Why not take as much as we can carry now?"

"Because if we do we can't put it all on at once, and we only want a
nice gentle fire, and to keep on mending it till there are plenty of
ashes."

"Well, we need not put it all on if we've got it there."

"But we must have something to do, sir."

"Well, lie down and rest till the potatoes are done."

"You don't know what you're talking about, sir. You can't think of what
agony it will be. They must have half-an-hour, and it will seem like a
week. You take my advice, sir. I'm sure it's right."

"Very well," said Jack, and they kept on going to and fro, breaking
enough to keep on feeding the fire, and trying hard not to think about
what was cooking, as they still piled on the twigs and branches of dead
wood, Ned busying himself in breaking them up, far more than was
necessary in his desperate determination not to be tempted to draw out a
single tuber before they were done.

"I know what 'taters are, sir," he said between his teeth, "and as bad
as can be really raw, but the gloriousest things as ever were for a
hungry man when he has got nothing else. But what a pity it is! If
we'd had our guns we could soon have brought down a skewerful or two of
those green and scarlet parrots to roast, and--Oh, don't talk about it.
Makes my mouth water horribly."

"Think they're done now, Ned?" said Jack, after three or four journeys
to and fro.

"No, sir, nor yet half. The sand underneath has to get hot. I tell you
what, we'll dig up some more and put them in the hot ashes after these
are done, to cook and take away with us. They'll do all right while
we're eating our dinner."

"Very well," said Jack, as he tried hard to curb his impatience, "but
it's terrible, this waiting."

"Try not to think about it, please, sir. There, let's make up the fire
once more, and then go and dig."

The wood was fetched and thrown on, both standing a little back
afterward, and having a hard struggle to keep from raking out two or
three of the potatoes to try if they were done, but they mastered
themselves bravely, and hurried to the spot where they had dug before,
to find it taken possession of by a larger and thicker snake than the
one that had been killed. It was coiled up on the dry sand which they
had cleared of leaves, and rose up menacingly at their approach.

"What shall we do--go somewhere else?" said Jack.

"No, sir, that we won't," cried Ned fiercely. "If that long eel