Jack worked in an office in a big city and frequently went to a small but confortable restaurant to have his lunch. One Monday, when he went to the table at which he usually sat, he saw that there was a new waitress in the restaurant. She was very young and looked rather hot and worried.
Jack sat down, and when the waitress came to him, asked for some vegetable soup. the new waitress wrote this down in a little notebook and went to order it in the kitchen.
There were a lot of people in the restaurant, and the new girl was very busy, but at last she came to Jack with a place on a large tray. She put the plate down in front of him, and he saw that it was not the vegetable soup which he had asked for, but some fish and potatoes.
The waitress was preparing to turn away again, but Jack stopped her. 'Miss,' he said. 'I did not order fish and potatoes. I ordered vegetable soup.'
'Oh,' she answered, 'I thought that you asked for fish.'
'No,' said Jack. 'Look at the notebook which you wrote my order in and you will see that I ordered vegetable soup.'
The new waitress looked everywhere in her little notebook, and at last she found Jack's order. '"Table No. 24,"' she read out. '"One vegetable soup." Yes, I am sorry, I got confused. I shall change it.'
She put the notebook down on Jack's table, took out her pencil, crossed out the words 'vegetable soup' and wrote 'fish and potatoes' instead. Then she shut the notebook and quickly walked away to take some orders from other tables, while Jack sat with his mouth open, too surprised to say another word.