Posted by Peter H on February 20, 2008 at 17:17:24 from 86.147.153.95 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: End of school milk posted by Jock on February 20, 2008 at 11:47:12:
After all the plethora of 'lunch' 'tiffin' and 'school milk' postings, dare I mention what the the subject of this Discussion Board has to say?
In Swallowdale, Ch III, Nancy tells the Swallows that she and Peggy “had to be back and into best frocks for supper”. Two pages later, Peggy says that the meat pie “was meant for native dinner last night”. Same meal being referred to?
In Chapter XVII, ‘Later and Later and Later’, Susan cooks “dinner”. This meal should have been at the middle of the day, but the potatoes were in one of their bad moods, and “dinner started very late”. As a result, the Amazons “had not the smallest chance of being back for tea”. A few pages later, after the hound trail, Nancy fears “being a minute late for supper”. On the very next page, Peggy says “we really did mean to be back for dinner”. It appears that the sisters do not agree on what to call the evening meal. The Swallows, via AR's narrative, call it "supper" - "That first night on Wild Cat Island the explorers ran tea on into supper."
In Chapter XXXIV, when the stretcher-party gets back to Swallowdale, AR avoids the problem by calling the meal a “feast”.
So: Susan calls lunch “dinner” and dinner "supper". Nancy calls dinner “supper”. Peggy calls dinner “dinner”. I hope that has cleared this whole matter up - you can't beat going back to the source. (What I call these meals is, of course, utterly irrelevant and off-topic.)