New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-12-25

young Cratchits. "Hurrah There's such
goose, Martha !"
"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how
late you are !" said Mrs. Cratchit kissing her
a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and
bonnet for her, with officious zeal.
"We'd deal of work to finish up last night"
replied the girl, sand had to clear away this
morning, mother p
"Well Never mind SO long as you are
come" said Mrs. Cratchit. sit We down be-
fore the fire, my dear, and have warm, Lord
bless YEP
"No, no! There's father coming" cried the
two young Cratchits, who were every where at
once. Hide, Martha, hidew
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 thread bare 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!
"Why, where's our Martha" cried Bob
Cratchit, looking round.
"Not coming" said Mrs. Cratchit.
"Not comingw said Bob with sudden de-
CLEMSON in his high spirits; for he had been
Tins blood horse all the way from church, and
had come home rampant Mot coming upon
Christmas Dayp'
Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if
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.
''And how did little Tim behave ," asked Mrs.
Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his
credulity, and Bob had Rugged his daughter to
his hearts content.
'FAs good as gold," said Bob, "and 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 cripple, and it might be pleasant to
them to remember upon Christmas Day who
made lame beggars walk and blind men see"
Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them
this. and trembled more when he said that Tiny
Tim was growing strong and hearty.
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 beside the fire and while Bob,
turning up his cuffs, as if, poor fellow, they were
capable of being made more shabby-com-
pounded some hot mixture in jug with gin
and lemons. and stirred it round and round, and
put 1t on the hob to simmer; Master Peter and
the goose, with which they soon returned in high
procession.
Such q hustle ensued that you might have
thought goose the rarest of all birds a feath-
cred phenomenon, to which black swan was u
matter OF course; and, in truth, it was some
thing very like it in that house Mrs Cratchit
made the gravy (ready beforehand in little
saucepan) kissing hot, Master Peter mashed
the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda
r,aH IL,
the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in
a tiny corner at the table; the two young Graft
chits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting
themselves, and, mounting guard upon their
posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest
they should shrek for goose before their turn
came to be helped. At last the dishes were set
on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by
breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slow
ly 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 ali
round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited
by the young Cratchits, beat on the table
with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried
Hurrah!
There never was such q goose. Bob said he
didn't believe there ever was such goose cook
ed. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheap
ness, were the themes of universal admiration
Fixed out by the apple-sauce and mashed pota-
toes, it was q 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't ate it all at last
Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest
Cratchits IN particular, were stepped in sage
and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the
plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs
Cratchit left the room alone-too nervous to
bear witnesses-to take the pudding up, and
bring it in.
Suppose it should not be done enough Sup
pose it should break in turning out Suppose
somebody should have got over the wall of the
backyard, and stolen it, while they were merry
with the goose; a supposition at which the two
young Cratchits became livid All sorts of hor-
rors were supposed.
Halo! A great deal of steam The pudding
was out of the copper. A smell like d washing
day That was the cloth. A smell like an
eating house, and pastry cooks next door to
each other, with laundresss next door to that
That was the pudding. In half minute Mrs.
Cratchit entered flushed, but smiling proudly
with the pudding, like speckled cannon ball,
so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quar-
tern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christ
mas holly stuck into the top.
Oh, wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said,
and calmly too, that he regarded it as the great
est success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their
marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the
weight was off her mind, she would confess she
had her doubts about the quantity of flour
Everybody had something to say about it, but
nobody said or thought it was at all small
pudding for large family. Itwould have been
hercsy to do so. Any Cratchit would have
blushed to hint at such 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 con-
sidered perfect, apples and oranges were put
upon the table, and 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
Cratehit's elbow stood the family display of
glass; two tumblers, and q eustard-cup without
q handle
These held the hot stuff from the Jug, howev-
er, as we'll as golden goblets would have done
and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while
the chestnnts on the fire sputtered and cracked
noisily. Then Bob proposed:
& merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God
bless !''
Which all the family re-echoed.
God bless us every one Pr said Tiny Tim, the
last of all.
He sat very close to his fathers 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
Esprit" said Scrooge, with an interest he
had never felt before, s' tell me if Tiny will
live"
81 see a vacant seat" replied the Ghost,