A CHRISTMAS PUDDING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue VIII, 25 August 1894, Page 191

A CHRISTMAS PUDDING.

By

BELLE ALLEN.

One Christmas Eve I was all alone in the house, keeping the pudding boiling. Mother and my sisters had all gone for a picnic. We had all helped to make it. Mother had put butter in instead of suet. We were doing the raisins when mother came in and said we were not taking the stalks or stones out. At last we finished this tiresome task. Mother had put in two sixpences, a thimble, and a brooch. We had all to stir the pudding, and as we stirred we sang : —

‘ A currant for luck, a raisin for health, Some spice for beauty, and sugar for wealth.

Well, I was sitting on a chair wondering bow it would taste with butter in it, when a most strange thing happened. The lid of the pot slowly lifted up, and as I looked I felt my hair gradually going on end. At last the lid fell on the stone with a clatter and the pudding cloth fell ofl', and out jumped the pudding, and with the sixpences for eyes, the thimble for a nose, and the brooch for a mouth. When it landed on the floor it cried out, ‘ I am going to butt her,’ and then it made for me and chased me round the kitchen, dancing the barn dance all the time. At last it cried out, ‘Sit down, little girl, sit down and I will tell your fortune,’ so it came dancing up and said, ‘give me your hand.’ Then it said, ‘You will be engaged five times and be married at twenty. You will write poetry and compose music ; you will be very rich and travel very much.’ But when it got to ‘ much ’ it began to dance again, so I said, ‘ Why do you dance all the time ?’ ‘ But 'er I can’t help myself,’ cried the pudding, dancing more violently than ever, ‘ you put too much in me.’ It had just danced up to the stove when it split in half. I jumped up and bundled it in the cloth anyhow and put it back in the pot. As I put the lid on, I heard a muffled sound which sounded like ‘ Butter, oh, butter I’ and then I felt myself shaken and mother scolding me for going to sleep, and also to find it was only a dream. —(Prize story at Picton Industrial Exhibition, Class III.)