If there was one thing that Mary Jane loved in the whole wide world, other than her hobby of collecting buttons (which she couldn’t eat, of course!), was her love for potatoes.
Mary Jane could eat potatoes for breakfast, lunch and supper. No matter if they were steamed, boiled, baked or fried. She preferred them fried, but would not dare say so, for Mother said oily potatoes were bad for her skin.
So when the family sat down to a breakfast of bread, jam and sandwiches, Mary Jane was happy with a glass of milk and a buttery potato cooked with its jacket on.
“We are buying bushels of potatoes for you, little Mary Jane,” said Father, one day. “The market would probably run out of potatoes soon.”
“Then she will have to grow her own potatoes,” said Mother as she poured out the coffee.
“Potatoes grow in the fields,” said Mary Jane. “All I have is a small patch in the garden where I can plant only a rose bush.”
Potato patch
One morning, Mother called Mary Jane into the kitchen. She was chopping up potatoes to pack for lunch. “Mary Jane, didn’t I tell you the other day that you could grow your own potatoes in the garden? See, I have a nice big potato with eyes. You can slice up the potatoes so that each piece has two or three eyes. If you plant these in your garden, the eyes will grow sprouts and you will soon have your own potato plants.”
Mary Jane was a little dubious. But she promptly picked up the quarters of eyed potatoes and went to the small patch in the garden which was hers.
A few days later, green leaves popped out from the mound of earth under which sat Mary Jane’s potatoes. She was excited. Her potatoes were beginning to grow. She watered and waited till they grew more leaves and became taller and stronger.
A few weeks passed and Mary Jane became busy with her exams. Occasionally she trotted out to water her plants and kept an eye on them from the kitchen window.
However, one day, Mary Jane noticed that the leaves of her potato plants had started withering. And the vines were dying. “Mother, I told you the potatoes would never grow in my garden,” she said. “They are probably dying.”
“I will look into it later,” promised Mother. That evening when Mary Jane returned home, Mother had a surprise for her. It was a basket full of large muddy potatoes!
“Darling, these are the potatoes you grew in your garden,” said Mother. “The leaves were wilting because the potatoes were ripe for harvest. Now, you can have your own home grown potatoes to eat… as many as you like.”
Mary Jane shrugged. “Maybe,” she said. “But my friends tell me that too many potatoes can make me fat. I have promised myself that I will never eat potatoes again. Here on, I am going to eat plenty of apples. When Daddy goes to the market, ask him to buy me apples!”
Game: Cooked
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