"Oh, you are joking," said Ben; "but come, sit down. You, father Oakley, sit here by this little bit of mutton, and I'll cut up the beef."
After considerable laughing they were all seated; and then Ben, finding that Johanna was on one side of him, and Miss Wilmot on the other, declared that he was quite satisfied.
He cut, first of all, a cold tongue in halves down the middle lengthways, and placed one half upon a plate for Johanna, and the other on a plate for Arabella. Then upon the tongue in each plate, he placed about a pound of ham.
"Take that, my little dears," he said, "to begin with, and don't be sparing now, for there's the turkey and the mutton, you know, to fall back upon. Easy does it."
The room resounded with shrieks of laughter at the looks of utter distressful dismay which Johanna and Arabella cast upon their plates; and Ben looked from one face to another in perfect astonishment, for he could not see any joke for the life of him.
"Dear Ben," said Johanna, "do you really imagine we can eat a tenth part of all this?"
"Do I imagine?—In course I does. Only you begin. Lord bless you, that ain't much. Come—come, you want your ale, I suppose. So here it is."
Upon this, Ben poured them each out about a quart of the strong ale, and requested them to take an easy pull at that.
They found that it was of no use requesting Ben to diminish the quantity he helped them to; so they just, as he advised, took it easy, and ate what they had a mind to do.
As for Ben himself, he cut one large slice off the round of beef, and then placed upon it two slices of ham, so that the thickness—for he was not a delicate carver—was about three inches; and so he set to work, every now and then taking up one of the half-gallon ale flagons, and pledging the company all round.