Assuming you're talking about the ball puzzle that can in fact be solved by that process: the numbers on the diagrams aren't an order, they're quantities of water to go into the position marked by each diagram (which won't be the physically closest bucket).

(While there's more than one ball puzzle, I'm pretty sure you mean the one which can actually be solved just by using the Marks - the other one uses different diagrams and an attempt to solve it will rapidly reveal the sticking point.)

The first ball puzzle you come to you have to come back to later once you get another spell