you know. One Xmas dinner was an amusing one. Roast beef was out of
the question, we couldn't get any, and the old woman who usually
brought us a turkey came eight miles in the snow to bitterly lament
the failure of her turkey crop. The one she had intended for me had
been killed and trussed and then the rats which abound out there,
got at it in the night and left not a bone of it! So I got the poor
old thing a warm cup of tea and gave her some thick socks and sent
her away relieved, resolved to spread myself on the pudding. Do you
remember Kathleen!"
And Miss Saskabasquia did and smiled at the remembrance.
"What was it like?"
"The pudding? Oh! It was the funniest pudding! George--no--Ethel,
was the baby then and very troublesome. Yes, you were my dear and
cutting teeth. I was far from strong and in the act of stirring the
pudding was taken quite ill and had to give it up. Kathleen was
naturally forced to attend to me and the three children, and only
for Henry, we should have had no Xmas dinner at all! He went to work
with a will, stirred it well, put it into the cloth and was just I
believe dropping it into the water when the string broke and the
poor pudding tumbled into the water! Of course it was useless, and
my husband scarcely knew what to do with himself. Fancy what he did
do, though! He went to work and made another out of what he could
find without telling us. He'll tell you about it if you ask him, how
puzzled he was at first. There was some suet over, only not minced,
you know. So he took that just as it was in a lump and buried it in
bread-crumbs, luckily we had plenty of bread. Then he broke in the
eggs, but when he came to look for the fruit, that was all in the
pot of hot water, not a raisin left. He just ladled them out and put
them in the second time. I think that was delicious of him don't you?
But he forgot the flour and there was so little sugar seemingly in
the bag (he didn't know where my Xmas stores were kept) that he took
fright and wouldn't use it but broke up some maple sugar instead,
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