His aunt was
hoeing some weeds away from between the hills of cucumbers she had
planted, for she was going to raise some of them, as well as pumpkins,
which last had been planted in between the rows of Hal's corn.
"Well, Uncle Pennywait may be fooling you a little," said Aunt Lolly, "but
I did see him cutting some eyes from the potatoes."
Hal and Mab looked at one another. They did not know what to think now. It
was seldom that both Aunt Lolly and Uncle Pennywait joked at the same
time.
"Come over here and I'll show you," called Uncle Pennywait when he had
laughed at the funny looks on the faces of the two children. "See," he
went on, "these are the 'eyes' of the potato, though the right name, of
course, is seeds."
He pointed to the little spots you may see on any potato you pick up,
unless it is one to small to have them. The spots are near the ends and in
the middle, and they look like little dimples. Some of them may look very
much like eyes, and that is what most gardeners and farmers call them, but
they are really the potato's seeds.
Mab and Hal watched what Uncle Pennywait was doing. He had a basket in
which were some large potatoes and these he was cutting into chunks,
letting them fall into another basket.
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