" Why, as to that,” said Jack, blowing on his coffee-cup and staring out of the stern-window at the harbour, “as to that … if you do not choose to call him a pragmatical clinch-poop and kick his breech, which you might think ungenteel, perhaps you could tell him to judge the pudding by its fruit.”
“You mean, prove the tree by its eating.”
“No, no, Stephen, you are quite out: eating a tree would prove nothing. "

― Patrick O'Brian