"It is, indeed," replied Pollux, "else it will be breakfast."

"Then lay aside your tools for a quarter of an hour and help me and the
palace-steward to demolish the food that has been sent me."

"You will need no second assistant if Keraunus is there. Food melts
before him like ice before the sun."

"Then come and save him from an overloaded stomach."

"Impossible, for I am just now dealing most unmercifully with a bowl full
of cabbage and sausages. My mother had cooked that food of the gods and
my father has brought it in to his first-born son."

"Cabbage and sausages!" repeated the architect, and its tone betrayed
that his hungry stomach would fain have made closer acquaintance with the
savory mess.

"Come in here," continued Pollux, "and be my guest. The cabbage has
experienced the process which is impending over this palace--it has been
warmed up."

"Warmed-up cabbage is better than freshly-cooked, but the fire over which
we must try to make this palace enjoyable again, burns too hotly and must
be too vigorously stirred. The best things have been all taken out, and
cannot be replaced."

"Like the sausages, I have fished out of my cabbages," laughed the
sculptor. "After all I cannot invite you to be my guest, for it would be
a compliment to this dish if I were now to call it cabbage with sausages.