"Yes."

"What for?"

"Eat, of course."

Bertie could not conceal his disgust.

"You needn't turn up your nose at him," continued Jack. "Good eating he is. Tender as a sucking pig, and tastes so nigh like I'd stump you to tell the difference."

Jack was going to say "tender as a chicken," but he remembered the calico and so avoided the use of the word.

"I am sure you are joking," declared Bertie.

"Not a bit of it," said Jack. "I wouldn't ask for a better dinner. The critter is like some other folks, not half so bad as you try to make him out. He has got a bad name, and that is the worst thing there is about him."

"Except his odor."

"That's not so bad either after you get used to it."