This seemed more satisfactory.
"Yes, isn't there?" I said enthusiastically. "Now I'm sure this makes up the amount all right."
"Plums are stone fruit," he observed stonily, "and you were allocated one hundredweight of sugar for your soft fruit, I believe?"
One really gets very tired of people who go on harping on the same thing over and over again.
"What about raspberries?" I inquired.
"Soft fruit, of course," said the inspector.
"But they contain stones," I urged. "Nasty little things wot gits into the 'ollers of your teeth somethink cruel, as cook says. Really, the Government ought to give us more careful instructions. And what about the apples? Are pips stones?"
"Apples are not used for jam-making," he retorted.
"What!" I exclaimed. "Tell that to the—to the Army in general! Plum-and-apple jam, my dear Sir! And that reminds me: a jam composed of half stone and half soft fruit—how do we stand in respect to that?"
"Well, Sir," said the inspector, closing his notebook grudgingly, "I don't think we need go into that. I think you've got just about the requisite amount of soft fruit for the one hundredweight of sugar which, I believe, you were allocated."