{"id":31694,"date":"2020-11-28T21:37:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?page_id=31694"},"modified":"2020-11-28T22:58:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T05:58:56","slug":"the-cratchits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/dickens-in-days\/the-cratchits\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 12 – The Cratchits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dickens<\/a>Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the baker\u2019s), that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall.<\/p>\n

And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to Scrooge\u2019s clerk\u2019s; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit\u2019s dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen \u201cBob\u201d a-week himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas<\/a> Present blessed his four-roomed house!<\/p>\n

Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit\u2019s wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob\u2019s private property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker\u2019s they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has ever got your precious father then?\u201d said Mrs. Cratchit. \u201cAnd your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha warn\u2019t as late last Christmas<\/a> Day by half-an-hour?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s Martha, mother!\u201d said a girl, appearing as she spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s Martha, mother!\u201d cried the two young Cratchits. \u201cHurrah! There\u2019s such a goose, Martha!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!\u201d said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d a deal of work to finish up last night,\u201d replied the girl, \u201cand had to clear away this morning, mother!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell! Never mind so long as you are come,\u201d said Mrs. Cratchit. \u201cSit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no! There\u2019s father coming,\u201d cried the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. \u201cHide, Martha, hide!\u201d<\/p>\n

So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, where\u2019s our Martha?\u201d cried Bob Cratchit, looking round.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot coming,\u201d said Mrs. Cratchit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot coming!\u201d said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; for he had been Tim\u2019s blood horse all the way from church, and had come home rampant. \u201cNot coming upon Christmas<\/a> Day!\u201d<\/p>\n

Martha didn\u2019t like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how did little Tim behave?\u201d asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs good as gold,\u201d said Bob, \u201cand better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas<\/a> Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob\u2019s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.<\/p>\n

His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs\u2014as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby\u2014compounded 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2014and 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 vigour; 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 guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!<\/p>\n

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn\u2019t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn\u2019t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone\u2014too nervous to bear witnesses\u2014to take the pudding up and bring it in.<\/p>\n

Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose\u2014a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were supposed.<\/p>\n

Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook\u2019s next door to each other, with a laundress\u2019s next door to that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered\u2014flushed, but smiling proudly\u2014with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas<\/a> holly stuck into the top.<\/p>\n

Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he 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 confess 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s elbow stood the family display of glass. Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.<\/p>\n

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 cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed:<\/p>\n

\u201cA Merry Christmas<\/a> to us all, my dears. God bless us!\u201d<\/p>\n

Which all the family re-echoed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod bless us every one!\u201d said Tiny Tim, the last of all.<\/p>\n

He sat very close to his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpirit,\u201d said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, \u201ctell me if Tiny Tim will live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a vacant seat,\u201d replied the Ghost, \u201cin the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no,\u201d said Scrooge. \u201cOh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,\u201d returned the Ghost, \u201cwill find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan,\u201d said the Ghost, \u201cif man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man\u2019s child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrooge bent before the Ghost\u2019s rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on hearing his own name.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Scrooge!\u201d said Bob; \u201cI\u2019ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Founder of the Feast indeed!\u201d cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. \u201cI wish I had him here. I\u2019d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he\u2019d have a good appetite for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dear,\u201d said Bob, \u201cthe children! Christmas<\/a> Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be Christmas<\/a> Day, I am sure,\u201d said she, \u201con which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dear,\u201d was Bob\u2019s mild answer, \u201cChristmas Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll drink his health for your sake and the Day\u2019s,\u201d said Mrs. Cratchit, \u201cnot for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas<\/a> and a happy new year! He\u2019ll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!\u201d<\/p>\n

The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn\u2019t care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes.<\/p>\n

After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter\u2019s being a man of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner\u2019s, then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord \u201cwas much about as tall as Peter;\u201d at which Peter pulled up his collars so high that you couldn\u2019t have seen his head if you had been there. All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed.<\/p>\n

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker\u2019s. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit\u2019s torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the baker\u2019s), that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease; and that he stood beneath […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":31663,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"pageWithContainerAndSidebar.php","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":27,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31694","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31694\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}