_In which a loving family has a happy Christmas upon small means._
It will surprise you very much to hear that there was once a man
who did not like Christmas. His name was Scrooge. Mr. Scrooge had
no wife and children and Christmas meant nothing to him. He hated
the noise, and the merriment, and thought the time was wasted. He
was a very unhappy man because he had nobody to love and loved
nobody.
Well, it was Christmas Eve, a very cold and foggy one, and Mr.
Scrooge, having given his poor clerk permission to spend Christmas
Day at home, locked up his office and went home himself in a very
bad temper. He got into bed and had some wonderful and disagreeable
dreams, to which we will leave him while we see how Tiny Tim, the
son of the poor clerk, spent Christmas Day.
The name of the clerk was Bob Cratchit. He had a wife and six
children. Tiny Tim, the youngest, was a weak and delicate little
cripple, and for this reason was dearly loved by his family.
Whenever he could spare the time Bob Cratchit delighted to take
his little boy on his shoulder to see the shops and the people, and
to-day he had taken him to church for the first time.
“Whatever has made your precious father and your brother, Tiny Tim,
so late for dinner!” exclaimed Mrs. Cratchit. “The dinner is ready
to be dished up.”
“Here they are now!” cried Belinda. In came Bob Cratchit with Tiny
Tim on his shoulders. Then out ran two of the boys and hustled Tiny
Tim out to the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing
on the copper.
“And how did Tiny Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit.
“As good as gold, and better,” replied his father. Just then his
little crutch was heard on the floor, and back came Tiny Tim to sit
before the fire, and wait while his brothers and sisters brought
in the dinner. Such a bustle ensued, and such a dinner! Bob took
Tiny Tim by him at the table; then the plates were put on and grace
said. There was a breathless pause as Mrs. Cratchit plunged the
carving knife into the breast of the goose. Never was there such a
goose, and the potatoes and apple sauce made your mouth water.
When the plates were cleared off the pudding was brought in,
steaming hot, looking like a speckled cannon ball, with Christmas
holly. Oh, such a wonderful pudding!
Bob Cratchit said it was the greatest success ever achieved by his
wife. The dinner finished and all cleared off, apples and oranges
were put upon the table, and a shovel of chestnuts placed on the
fire, sputtering and cracking noisily.
Then Bob Cratchit 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 the last of all.