Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-12-24
A CHAPTER FROM DICKENS.
How and Where the PickWick Club of
London Spent Their Christmas.

As brisk as bees, if not altogethe
as light as fairies, did the four Pick
wickians assemble on the morning o
the 22nd day of December, in the yea
of grace in which these. their faith
fully recorded adventures, were under
taken and accomplished. Christmas
was close at hand, in all his bluff anC
hearty honesty; it was the season o
hospitality, merriment, and open
heartedness; the old year was pre-
pairing, like an ancient philosopher, to
call his friends around him, and amidst
the sound of feasting and revelry to
pass gently and calmly away. Gay
and merry was the time, and gay and
merry were at least four of the nu.
merous hearts that were gladdened by
its coming.
And numerous indeed are the hearts
to which Christmas brings brief sea-
son of happiness and enjoyment. How
many families, whose members have
been dispersed and scattered far and
wide in the restless struggles of life,
are then reunited, and meet once again
in that happy state of companionship
and mutual good will, which is a
source of such pure and unalloyed
delight, and one so incompatible with
the cares and sorrows of the world,
that the religious belief of the most
civilized nations, and the rude tradi-
tions of the toughest savages, alike
number it among the first joys of a
future existence, provided for the blest
and happy! How many old recollec-
tions, and how many dormant sympa-
thies, does Christmas time awaken F.
We write these words now, many
miles distant from the spot at which,
year after year, we met on that day, a
merry and joyous circle. Many OF
the hearts that throbbed so gaily then,
have ceased to glow; the hands we
grasped have grown cold the ewes we
sought have hid their lustre in the
grave; and vet the old house, the
room, the merry voices and smiling
faces, the Jest, the laugh. the most
minute and trivial circumstance con-
nected with those happy meetings,
crowd upon our mind at each recur-
renee of the season, as if the last as
semblage had been but yesterday !.
Happy, happy Christmas, that can
win us back to the delusions of our
childish days; that can recall to the
old man the pleasures of his youth /;
that can transport the sailor and the
traveller, thousands of miles away,
back to his own fireside and his quiet
home.
But we are so taken up and occu-
pied with the good qualities of this
saint Christmas, that we are keeping
Mr. Pickwick and his friends waiting
in the cold on the outside of the Mug
gleton coach, which they have just
attained, well wrapped up in great
coats, shawls and comforters The
portmanteaus and carpet-bags have
been slowed away, and Mr.. Weller
and the guard are endeayoring to in
sinnate into the fore boot huge cod
fish several sizes too large for it
which is snugly packed up, in a lohg
brown basket with a layer of straw
over the top, and which has been left
to the last, in order that he may re-
pose in safety on the half-dozen barrels
of real native oysters, all the property
/ of Mr. Pickwick, which have been ar
ranged in regular order at the bottom
| of the receptacle. The interest dis
played in Mr.. Pickwick's 5 countenance
| is most intense, as Mr.. Weller and the
guard try 10 squeeze the Goldfish into
the boot, first head first, and then tail
first, and then top upward, and then
bottom upward, and then sideways,
and then longways, all of which arti-
ices the simplacable Goldfish sturdi!y
resists, until the guard accidentally
hits him in the very middle of the
basket, whcreupon he suddenly disap-
pears into the boot, and with him, the
head and shoulders of the guard him.
self who, not calculating upon so
sudden q cessation of the unexpected
shock, to the unsmotherable delight of
all the porters and bystanders. Upon
this, Mr.. Pickwick smiles with great
good humor, and drawing a shilling
from his waistcoat pocket, begs the
guard, as he picks himself out of the
boot, to drink his health in a glass of
hot brandy and water at which the
guard smiles too, and Mcssrs. Snod-
grass, Winkle and Tupman, all smile
in company. The guard and Mr.
Weller disappear for five minutes,
most probably to get the hot brandy
and water, for they smell very strongly
of it when they return, the coachman
mounts to the box, Mr. Weller jumps
up behind, the Pickwickians pull theil
coats round their legs and their shawls
over their noses, the helpers pull the
horse-cloths off, the coachman shouts 6
CHEEKY "All right" and away they go
They have rumbled through the
streets, and jolted over the stones, and
at length reach the wide and oper
country. The wheels skim over th'
hard and frosty ground and the horses
bursting into canter, at smart cracl
of the whip, step along the road as i
the load behind them; coach, passen
gers, Goldfish, oyster barrels, and all
were DuI Il leulncf III INelF neeiS. 4 ucN
have descended gentle slope, and en-
ter upon level, as compact and DIR,
as a solid block of marble, two mile
long. Another crack of the whip an
on they speed at smart gallop; th
!, horses tossing their heads and rattlin!
t the harness, as if in exhiliration at th
: rapidity of the motion, while tn
: .coachman, holding whip and reins i
one hand, takes off his hat with tn
other, and resting it on bis knees, pull
out his handkerchief and wipes hi
forehead, partly because he has hab
/. of doing it, and partly because its a
well to show the passengers how coo
!. he is, and what an easy thing it is t
drive four-in- hand. when You have ha