“Now, captain,” said Jessie, laying her hand at last on his thin arm, as it was stretched out to help himself to more, “you really must not. You know the doctor said that it would never do, at first, to—”
“My dear,” interrupted the invalid, “hang the doctor!”
“Well, I have no objection to his being hanged, if you don’t ask me to do it,” returned Jessie, “but really—”
“Oh! let him alone,” said Kate, who, being very healthy, shared the captain’s unreasonable contempt for medical men, and was more than pleased at the ravenous tendencies of her old friend.
“Now for the sponge-cakes,” said the captain, wiping his mouth and rubbing his hands on finishing the first course.
“You are to have none,” said Kate, firmly. The captain’s face elongated into a look of woe.
“Because you are to have rice-pudding and thick cream instead!” continued Kate.
The captain’s face shortened again into a beaming smile.
Liffie Lee appeared at the moment with the viands named.
“I never saw anything like it!” exclaimed Jessie with a short laugh, and a look of resignation.