“Oh! The 15th. Right. And that’s significant, is it? To you and your people, I mean.”
“Just about the most important day in our calendar, that’s for sure.”
“Really? How interesting. Why is that?”
“It’s my daughter’s birthday.”
“And you’ve just got the one, have you?”
“One what? Daughter?”
“Well, yes.”
“Yes, just the one.”
‘Marvellous. And it’s her birthday, you say? Today.”
“It is indeed her birthday today. She’s 26 and she’s the loveliest, sweetest, most generous hearted, beloved daughter in the whole wide world. We have been blessed.”
“Fascinating. And that’s why I’m here, is it?”
“What?”
“I asked, ‘that’s why I’m here, is it?’ Here, in this cauldron.”
“Of course! Why else? We have to celebrate and missionaries, what we like to call special occasion food, as it were, don’t pop out of the woods every day. What else would we eat? Root vegetables and tree bark? For a party?”
” No. I quite see your point. It’s just that I understood that you people were vegetarian.”
“Oh, we are. Well, I am. And my daughter is, of course, because she’s kind and lovely and sweet and considerate..”
“And generous and beloved, yes, you said, but, and I’m sorry to be pedantic but it is hot and getting rather uncomfortable in here, that being so, why are you eating me again?”
“I told you. We’re celebrating! We have to put some sort of spread on for our guests and they’re not vegetarians!“