Author: Dickens Charles Title: THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH Source: http://promo.net/pg/_authors/dickens_charles_.html Subject: ENGLISH FICTION (823)
The Cricket on the Hearth", by Charles Dickens. [obi/Charles.Dickens/cricket.on.hearth.txt] THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH CHIRP THE FIRST The kettle began it! tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I know better. Mrs. Peerybingle may leave it on record to the end of time that she couldn't say which of them began it; but, I say the kettle did. I ought to know, I hope! The kettle began it, full five minutes by the little waxyfaced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket uttered a chirp. As if the clock hadn't finished striking, and the convulsive little Haymaker at the top of it, jerking away right and left with a scythe in front of a Moorish Palace, hadn't mowed down half an acre of imaginary grass before the Cricket joined in at all! Why, I am not naturally positive. Every one knows that. I wouldn't set my own opinion against the opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle, unless I were quite sure, on any account whatever. Nothing should induce me. But, this is a question of fact. And the fact is, that the kettle began it, at least five minutes before the Cricket gave any sign of being in existence. Contradict me, and say ten. Let me narrate exactly how it happened. I should have proceeded to do so in my very first word, but for this plain consideration -- if I am to tell a story I

ENGLISH   -other works by Author -

Dickens Charles

A Child'S History Of England  A Christmas Carol A Message From The Sea A Tale Of Two Cities American Notes Barnaby Rudge Bleak House Contributions To All The Year Round David Copperfield Doctor Marigold Dombey And Son George Silverman'S Explanation Going Into Society Great Expectations Hard Times Holiday Romance Hunted Down Literary And Social Speeches Little Dorrit Martin Chuzzlewit Master Humphrey'S Clock Miscellaneous Papers Mrs. Lirriper'S Lodgings Mudfog And Other Sketches Mugby Junction Nicholas Nickleby No Thoroughfare Oliver Twist Our Mutual Friend Perils Of Certain English Prisoners Pictures From Italy Sketches By Boz Sketches Of Young Couples Sketches Of Young Gentlemen Some Short Christmas Stories Somebody'S Luggage Sunday Under Three Heads The Battle Of Life The Chimes The Haunted Man And The Ghost'S Bargain The Holly-Tree The Lamplighter The Lazy Tour Of Two Idle Apprentices The Mistery Of Edwin Drood The Old Curiosity Shop The Pickwick Papers The Seven Poor Travellers The Uncommercial Traveller The Wreck Three Ghost Stories To Be Read Be Dusk Tom Tiddler'S Ground