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LESSON 10
OUR Uncle Robert one day came to us, and asked us to dinner. He said he would give us a pudding, the materials
of which had given work to more than a thousand men!
“A pudding that has taken a thousand men to make! Then it must be as large as a church!”
“Well, my boys,” said Uncle Robert, “tomorrow at dinner-time you shall see it.”
Scarcely had we taken our breakfast next day, when we prepared
to go to our uncle’s house.
When we got there, we were surprised
to see everything as calm and quiet as usual.
At last we sat down to table. The first dishes were removed
—our eyes were eagerly
fixed on the door—in came the pudding! It was a plum-pudding of the usual
kind—not a bit larger!
“This is not the pudding that you promised us,
” said my brother.
“It is, indeed,” said Uncle Robert.
“O uncle! you do not mean to say that more than a thousand men have helped to make that little pudding?”
“Eat some of it first, my boy; and then take your slate and pencil, and help me to count the workmen,” said Uncle Robert.
“Now,” said Uncle Robert, “to make this pudding we must first have flour; and how many people must have laboured to procure
it! The ground must have been ploughed, and sowed, and harrowed, and reaped. To make the plough, miners, smelters,
and smiths, —wood-cutters, sawyers, and carpenters, —must have laboured.
“The leather of the harness for the horses had to be tanned, and prepared for the harness-maker. Then, we have the builders of the mill, and the men who quarried the mill-stones, and made the machine-work of the mill.
“Then think of the plums, the lemon-peel, the spices, the sugar; —all these come from distant countries; and to get them hither, ships, ship-builders, sail-makers, sailors, growers, merchants, and grocers, have been employed.
“Then we need eggs, milk, and suet.”
“Oh, stop, stop, uncle!” cried I. “I am sure you have counted a thousand!”
“I have not reckoned all, my child. We must cook the pudding, and then we must reckon colliers who bring us
coal, miners who dig for tin and iron for the sauce-pan. Then there is the linen of the cloth it was wrapped in. To make this we must reckon those who grow the fl ax, and gather it, and card
it, and spin it, and weave it, and all the workmen who make the looms
and machines.”
Robert and I both said we were quite satisfied that there were more than a thousand men employed.
To how many men had the pudding given work? What kind of pudding was it? What was its size? How could that pudding employ so many men? Were the boys satisfi ed?
la´-boured pud´-ding un´-cle min´-ers ma-chine´-work
har´-rowed to-mor´-row qui´-et car´-pen-ters sat´-is-fied
quar´-ried break´ fast col´-liers build´-ers lin´-en
