"When 'twas drawin' along towards dinner-time, I thought I'd hunt up a dish to turn the puddin' into, 'cause, you see, I baked it in a brown, airthen dish that wa'n't fit to set on the table. Well, I come across a deep, blue-edged one, jest like one we had at home, that my mother bought on purpose to put puddin' into. We were to have, besides the puddin', a grand good b'iled dish--pork and corned beef, and all sorts of garding-sass, sich as cabbage, turnips, bates, carriots, and so on. 'Twas no fool of a job to prepare so many kinds of sass; but I didn't vally the trouble, all I aimed at was to suit Uncle Higgins. When I'd got everything on the table, they looked so nice I felt quite proud. Accordin' to my mind, 'twas a dinner fit to set afore a king. "Uncle Higgins was blest with an amazin' good appetite, and, I tell you, he did good justice to the b'iled dish. Arter a while, he begun to slack off a leetle mite, and I could see him eyein' the puddin' purty sharp. At last, says he-- "'What 'ave you got there, Tabitha?' "'A rice puddin', sir,' says I. "'A rice puddin'?' says he. "'Yes, sir,' says I. "'Well, then, I guess you never sarved much of a 'prenticeship at making rice puddin's,' says he. "'If you'll jest taste of it, sir, I guess you'll like it,' says I. "'I sha'n't taste of sich a lookin' thing as that,' says he, and up he jumps from the table, appearantly jest as mad as a March hare. "I felt purty much riled myself, and should 'ave been glad if the tarnal puddin' had been right in the middle of the Red Sea. Arter I'd taken so much pains, worried myself e'en jest to death about it, as 'twere, I thought 'twas too bad for him to speak about it in sich a short, scornful way. "I didn't tell Aunt Keziah anything about it, 'cause, as she was sick, I was afeared 'twould worry her; but, afore I'd finished doin' the work up arter dinner, Uncle Higgins got cooled down a leetle atom, and went into aunt's room to see how she was. She mistrusted by his looks that everything wasn't raly right, so she says to him-- "'How did the dinner suit you?' "'Well enough,' says he. "'Did Tabitha make the rice puddin' to yer likin'?' says she. "'I didn't eat any rice puddin',' says he. 'There was a mushy-lookin' thing on the table that she _called_ a rice puddin'; but it didn't look like an eatable to me.' "'What appeared to be the matter with it?' says Aunt Keziah. "'Why, one thing that ailed it was, there wa'n't a drop of whey in it; 'twas dry as a contribution-box, and you know I never eat sich puddin's.' "'I guess you put a leetle too much rice in your puddin' accordin' to the other gred'ences,' says Aunt Keziah, the first time I went into the room arter Uncle Higgins was gone. "'I put in jest as much as you said I must,' says I. "'Well,' says she, 'Mr. Higgins told me 'twas too dry--that there wa'n't any whey in it.'