Picking up the dish, he turned it about in his hands, as if examining the china.
'This dish,' he said, in a casual manner, 'cost me three shillings in Liverpool.' With these words he put down the dish, with the 'plummy' end of the pudding turned towards himself.
'Really,' said the mate, in his turn lifting the dish, 'I should not have thought it worth more than a shilling.'
Then, with apparent carelessness, he put down the pudding, with the plums towards himself.
The two men looked at one another. The captain laughed. The mate laughed.
'You have found me out!' said the captain. 'Well, we will cut the pudding lengthwise, and in future the plums shall be fairly distributed.'
FIRE PICTURES.
ATCH the pictures in the fire;
How they gleam and come and go,
Making trees and birds and cows,
And red houses in a row.
Did the fairies put them there
When the coal was underground,
So that we, at eventide,
All their hidden treasures found?