rough and ready way. What this Puddin' requires is politeness
and constant eatin'."

They had a delightful meal, eating as much as possible, for
whenever they stopped eating the Puddin' sang out

"Eat away, chew away, munch and bolt and guzzle,
Never leave the table till you're full up to the muzzle."

But at length they had to stop, in spite of these encouraging
remarks, and as they refused to eat any more, the Puddin' got
out of his basin, remarking--"If you won't eat any more here's
giving you a run for the sake of exercise," and he set off so
swiftly on a pair of extremely thin legs that Bill had to run
like an antelope to catch him up. "My word," said Bill, when
the Puddin' was brought back. "You have to be as smart as paint
to keep this Puddin' in order. He's that artful, lawyers couldn't
manage him. Put your hat on, Albert, like a little gentleman,"
he added, placing the basin on his head. He took the Puddin's hand,
Sam took the other, and they all set off along the road. A peculiar
thing about the Puddin' was that, though they had all had a great
many slices off him, there was no sign of the place whence the
slices had been cut.

"That's where the Magic comes in," explained Bill. "The more
you eats the more you gets. Cut-an'-come-again is his name,
an' cut, an' come again, is his nature. Me an' Sam has been eatin'
away at this Puddin' for years, and there's not a mark on him.
Perhaps," he added, "you would like to hear how we came to own
this remarkable Puddin'."