ecause
of the incidents occurring in them.

Sometimes, especially in speaking of the drama, the word _scene_ is
applied not only in its literal sense, but also to include not merely
the place but the incidents that happen in the place, as well.

For instance, we may say, "The quarrel between Brutus and Cassius is a
wonderful scene in _Julius Caesar_." Again, the word is used sometimes to
mark the division of a play, as when we speak of the second scene in the
first act of _Macbeth_. For our purposes, however, in our early reading
with children, let us use it to signify only the place where events
happen.

An author may tell us at the beginning of a story that the scene is laid
in London, or in Calcutta, or in the Black Forest; but unless he employs
some method of giving a vivid impression of the setting of the story, we
soon lose sight of locality. Sometimes, of course, it is not necessary
that we should remember the place--the story moves on independent of
scene; but other stories depend in part for their interest and even for
their plot upon their setting. In such cases, the author, by reference
to the natural features characteristic of a region, or to the peculiar
traits or mannerisms or turns of speech of his characters, keeps before
us the place in which the scene is laid. Such peculiarities of a place
or its inhabitants, when introduced into a story, are given the name of
local coloring.

In _A Christmas Carol_ (Volume VI, page 244), Dickens meant that we
should be conscious throughout not only of a Christmas atmosphere, but
of an _English_ Christmas atmosphere. The references to the Christmas
feeling are too obvious to require pointing out, but the methods by
which the author makes us conscious that we are in London do not show so
clearly at first sight. By a study of the paragraph which begins in the
middle of page 253, and of the one immediately following it, we may get
some idea of these methods.

"Meanwhile the _fog_ and darkness thickened so, that the people ran
about with flaring _links_." A London boy would not need a footnote to
tell him that the fogs of London are famous; that they are at times so
thick that all traffic is obliged to cease. Nor would he need to be told
that links are torches of tow and pitch, which enterprising London boys
provided themselves with at foggy times, that they might earn money by
piloting people about. The word _brazier_, too, is in commoner use in
England than it is i