"Which the joint to-day is a goose," protested that lady; "and one more difficult to halve at short notice I don't know, for my part."
"You must do the best you can." He vouchsafed no other reply.
Mrs Bowldler considered this problem all the rest of the morning. "Palmerston," she asked, as she opened the oven door to baste the bird, "supposin' you were asked to halve a roast goose, how would you begin?"
"I'd say I wouldn't," answered Palmerston on brief reflection.
"But supposin' you had to?"
Palmerston reflected for many seconds. "I'd start by gettin' my knee on it," he decided.
Mrs Bowldler, albeit much vexed in mind, deferred solving the problem, and was rewarded with good luck as procrastinators too often are in this world.
Dinner-time arrived, but Captain Hocken did not. She served the goose whole and carried it in to Captain Hunken.
"Eh?" said 'Bias, as she removed the cover. "What about—about Cap'n
Hocken?"
"He have not arrove."