been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the
dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight.

"Well, I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, "because I
haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do _you_ say,
Topper?"

Topper clearly had his eye on one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he
answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to
express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister--the
plump one with the lace tucker, not the one with the roses--blushed.

After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew
what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure
you,--especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good
one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the
face over it.

But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they
played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never
better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.
There was first a game at blind-man's-buff, though. And I no more
believe Topper was really blinded than I believe he had eyes in his
boots. Because the way in which he went after that plump sister in the
lace tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. Knocking
down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping up against the
piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went there
went he! He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch
anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, and
stood there, he would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you,
which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would
instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister.

"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!"

It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of
something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their
questions yes or no, as the case was. The fire of questioning to which
he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a
live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal
that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in
London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and
wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menage