She finished with the roots and put them in the pot with the meat.
"Where do you find such big roots?" the young man asked his brother.
"Over there," the brother said, pointing to a patch of earth nearby. "She finds them there."
"I don't find them," she said. "I put them there in the first place."
"You mean you store them in the earth?" the young man said.
"No. I put the tops in the ground—the blue and yellow flowers—and next warm season I dig and there are the new roots. You have to put water on the earth when it gets dry. Also you have to pull up all the small plants that grow there among them. It's very hard work."
"More magic," said the young man.
"It's not magic!" she said. "You are stupid. Haven't you noticed that when you leave an acorn on the ground, it breaks open and a finger goes down into the earth? And then, after the next rains, it makes little leaves—and if you leave it alone, it grows and in time becomes a young tree?"
"Everyone knows that," the young man said disdainfully.
"Well, this is the same."