Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

tion, for his approval of a work made possible only by his generous encouragement in the attempt to adapt the natural method developing expression as taught by him to the purpose of the present volume. M. A. K.

BALTIMORE, MD., April, 1893.

STEP I.-LIFE.

PROPERTY OF THE

CITY OF NEW YORK.

THE CRATCHITS' CHRISTMAS DINNER.

I. TINY TIM'S active little. crutch was heard upon the floor, and back he came escorted by his brother and sister to his stool beside the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs-as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby— compounded 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 ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.

2. 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 beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; 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 forgetting themselves, and mounting

« ZurückWeiter »