regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs.
Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the
weight was off her mind, she would confide 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
hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being
tasted and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon
the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts 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 golden
goblets would have done: and Bob served it out with beaming looks,
while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily.
Then Bob proposed:

''A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!'

'Which all the family re-echoed.

''God bless us every one!' said Tiny Tim, last of all.

'He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool.
Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the
child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he
might be taken from him.'

Could any thing be more life-like, more beautiful, more touching, than
this description? But let us skip the journeyings of Christmas Present for
a moment, that we may accompany Christmas to Come to the dwelling of poor
BOB CRATCHIT:

'The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his
feet; and as they went along, Scrooge looked here and there to
find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. They entered poor Bob
Cratchit's house; the dwelling he had visited before; and found
the mother and the children seated round the fire.

'Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as
statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book
before him. The mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing.
But surely they were very quiet!

''And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them.