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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1956-12-24, Page 16By Charles Dickens <.? 16 Th* Timn-Advocat«r Dtctmber 24, 1956 ABeloyedChristmas Story North End Exeter EXETER CREDITON Supertest Station EXETER Such A Goose!*' Martha, mother!’ young Cratchits, such a EXETER John Webster MASONRY AND REPAIRS Blessing ^SANITONE as**1 ttngs Sohbotf" $i^cer ' Moloy lylay the faith that led the Three Wise Men to His manger fill your heart with love and good will this Christmas time. Armstrong's Restaurant ALL READY FOR CHRISTMAS—Paul, 10 months, and Mary Margaret, two years, children of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Jeffery, of Usborne, can’t wait for Santa to bound down the chimney Christmas eve with his pack of toys and gifts. They’ve been peeking around the free already to find out what’s in the gay parcels and Mary Margaret has found a miniature Santa that Paul thinks he’d like to have. Merchants throughout the area report record sales of toys this year so there’ll be loads of fun around Christ­ mas trees Tuesday morning. —T-A Photo The Cratchits' Christmas Dinner I have always thought of Christ­ mas-time, when it has come round, as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good, and I say, God bless it! ★ ★ The old miser, Scrooge, had a clerk. Bob Cratchit, who earned but fifteen 'bob’ a week, yet the Ghost-of-ChristmaS blessed his four-roomed house! Christmas morning! Up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit’s wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice- turned gown, but brave in rib­ bons, which are cheap and make a 'goodly show for sixpence. She laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Mas­ ter Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into a saucepan*of potatoes, and getting the corners of his mon­ strous shirt-collar (Bob’s private property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker’s they’d smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage-and-onion, these young Cratchits danced about' the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not proud, although his collar nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the sauce­ pan-lid to be let out and peeled. ‘What has ever got your precious father then?’ said Mrs. Cratchit. ‘And your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha warn’t as late last Christmas Day by half an hour!’ "There's ‘Here’s the two rah! There’s Martha! vvii.y, uicoa juui ucaiu auvc, my dear, how late you are!’ said times, and taking off her shawl a quartern o£ ignited brandy, and benight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the great­ est success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing. At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the heartn swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, applei and oranges were put pnthe table, and a shovel-full of chest­ nuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and. at Bob Cratchit’s elbow stood the family display of glass. Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle. These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as gold­ en goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed: ‘A Merry Christmas to us all, mv dears. God bless us!’ Which all the family re-echdea. ‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all. ” Laundeteria Ltd* ' cried ‘Hur- goose, ‘Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!’ said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a .dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal. ‘W’d a deal of work to finish up last ni'ght,’ replied the girl, ‘and had to clear away this morn­ ing, mother!’ ‘Well! Never mind, so long as you are come,’ said Mrs. Cratchit. ‘Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!’ • ***'- ‘No,' no! There’s father com­ ing,” cried the two young Crat­ chits, who were everywhere at once. ‘Hide, Martha, hide!’ So Martha hid herself, and tin came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame. ‘Why, where’s our Martha?’ cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. ‘Not coming,’ said Mrs. Crat­ chit. ‘Not coming!’ said Bob, with a- sudden declension in his high spirits; for he had been Tim’s blood-horse all the Way from church, and had come home ram­ pant. ‘Not coming upon Christ­ mas Day!’ Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed, if it were only in a joke; so she came out premature­ly from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the cop­ per. ‘And how , did little Tim be- have?’ asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credul­ ity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content. Thinks The Strangest Things ‘As good as gold,’ said Bob, ‘and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the .people saw him in the'church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to re­ member upon Christmas Dav, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see? Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled mote when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. His active, little crutch Was heard uoon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool be­ fore the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs—as if, poor follow, they were capable of being made more shabby—com nounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter and the two unfriuifous young Cratchits went to fetch the gooses with which they soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course— and in truth it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the,gravy (ready hissing hot; Master Peter mash­ ed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the applesauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not for­ getting themselves, and mount­ ing guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths,, lest they should shreik for goose before their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was- succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly„all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all around the board, and even Tiny Tim, excit­ed by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of Ills knife, and feebly cried ‘Hurrah!’ Universal Admiration ’ There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size an-’’ cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by the apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient din- ner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particu­ lar, were (steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone—-too nervous to bear witness—to take the pudding up and bring it in. Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose —a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were sup­ posed. Halloa! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out .of the cop­ per. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastry­ cook’s next door to each other, with a laundress’s next door to that! That was. the pudding! -In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit en­ tered — flushed, but smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a. speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half 'Winter Foliage by Doerr atcvcr else might bi lost among the years/ let us keep Christmas. Let us hold close this day/remembering family and friends. May yours be a very joyous Holiday lurrounded by all whose love and friendship you cherish*