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, “to-morrow 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 flax, 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.

Questions

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 satisfied?

Pronunciation

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

Write

promised laboured quarried

materials ploughed wrapped

to-morrow harrowed employed

有一天，我們的羅伯特叔叔到我家來，邀請我們共進(jìn)晚餐。他說他會帶我們吃布丁，而這布丁是由一千多人制作而成的！

“布丁竟然要一千多人制作！那么它一定大得像教堂一樣吧！”

“哦，孩子們，”羅伯特叔叔說：“明天吃晚飯的時(shí)候，你們就會看到的。”

第二天，因?yàn)橄胫ナ迨寮掖蟪砸活D，我們幾乎沒怎么吃早餐。

到叔叔家的時(shí)候，我們非常驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有的東西都和往常沒什么區(qū)別。

終于坐在了餐桌旁。第一道菜撤掉之后，我們的眼睛都急切地盯著門口——布丁來了！這個(gè)布丁就是一個(gè)普通的葡萄干布丁——并沒有多大啊！

“這不是你答應(yīng)給我們吃的布丁，”我弟弟說道。

“這是我答應(yīng)你們的布丁，真的，”羅伯特叔叔說。

“哎，叔叔！你不會真的說這個(gè)小布丁是一千多個(gè)人做的吧？”

“先吃點(diǎn)，孩子們；然后拿出你們的寫字板和筆，幫我數(shù)一下參與制作布丁的人數(shù)，”羅伯特叔叔說。

“現(xiàn)在，”羅伯特叔叔說，“要制作布丁，我們首先要有面粉；那么有多少人參與到制作面粉的勞動(dòng)中！人們要犁地、播種、耙地、收割。單是犁地，就要有礦工、冶煉工、鐵匠、伐木工、鋸木工，還有木匠的勞動(dòng)。”

“制作馬具的皮革需要先經(jīng)過鞣革的程序，再交給皮匠處理。然后，我們需要有建造磨坊的人，這些人要挖出建造磨坊的石料，讓磨坊的機(jī)器運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。”

“然后再想一下葡萄干、檸檬皮、調(diào)味料、糖——所有這些東西都來自遙遠(yuǎn)的外國；而且要把這些東西運(yùn)來，那么造船的人、為運(yùn)輸提供保險(xiǎn)服務(wù)的人、水手、種植者、商人、雜貨店主，等等，都要參與進(jìn)來。”

“然后，我們還需要雞蛋、牛奶和牛脂。”

“哦，不要說了，不要說了，叔叔！”我喊道，“我確信你已經(jīng)數(shù)了一千個(gè)了！”

“我還沒有想全呢，我的孩子。我們還要把布丁做出來，這時(shí)我們就會想到把煤炭挖出來的礦工，挖制作燉鍋的錫和鐵的礦工。然后還要有把布丁包裹起來的亞麻布。要獲得這種亞麻布，我們就要種植和收割亞麻，而把它紡成線，織成布，就需要操作紡織機(jī)的工人。”

羅伯特和我都感到非常驚奇，真的有一千多人參與到這個(gè)布丁的制作中來。